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The Plainfield School Board has gotten the final word on taxes for 2007-08, has nixed a standardized test and is exploring new designs for the school parking lot.
School Tax Rate
Good news! The combined school tax rate will increase just 3.3% this year, lower than expected.
At the School District Meeting last March, voters approved a budget increase of $306,407, or 6.1%, for the 2007-08 school year. This includes funding for the main operating budget, new teacher and support staff contracts, building reserve fund and initial bond payment for the fire safety improvements performed at the Plainfield School. So why did the tax rate increase only about half as much?
We ended the last school year with a general fund balance surplus of $191,633. As customary, this surplus has been returned to taxpayers. The net effect has been to reduce the need for additional tax revenue to only $114,744 for this school year. To meet the budget, the local school property tax rate has been set at $15.93 per $1,000 of assessed property value, and the state tax rate has been set at $2.65. This brings the combined school tax rate to $18.58, up from $17.98 last year.
Now here’s a test. Have school taxes been held in line with the cost of living over the last five years? If you said yes, you answered correctly! Using 2003 as a baseline, the combined school property tax rate has increased $2.60, an average increase of 65 cents per year, equal to 4.07% per annum.
Your School Board is working hard to keep future taxes down while maintaining a quality education for our kids. It won’t be easy… it never is! The cost of heating oil, for example, may well rise above the contract price of $2.39 per gallon that we locked into this year. Health insurance premiums for school personnel are expected to rise another 8-10% next year. And two years from now, the state may sock all New Hampshire communities with a bill for unfunded pension liabilities for the record number of teachers reaching retirement age. As we enter the next budget season, the School Board looks forward to working with newly appointed Finance Committee and town taxpayers to hold property taxes at a manageable level.
Tests and Parking Lot
The School Board has decided to remove the Terra Nova test as an annual requirement. With the passage of No Child Left Behind, standardized tests are taking more time away from classroom instruction. By law, our school is required to administer the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP). The school also administers an individualized, nationally normed test from the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) that provides more timely feedback on individual student performance. After careful consideration with the administration and staff, the School Board decided to do away with the Terra Nova standardized test, which collects information similar to the NWEA test. This will save some money and, more importantly, leave more time to “challenge every child” in a stimulating classroom environment.
Finally, the review of a new parking lot design continues. The Facility Committee met with the Road Agent and other town representatives on Nov. 8 to review a design for a 120-vehicle parking lot prepared last year by landscape architectural firm of Saucier & Flynn. The group discussed alternatives to this plan that would maintain improvements in safety while reducing the overall cost of the project. Accordingly, the design will be revised and then discussed with the community. Your input into this process is welcome!
— Doug Cogan, on behalf of the Plainfield School Board