mcdude
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Barnstead to Split from the Pittsfield School District?
Here's the article that Al e-mailed to everyone. Your comments and reactions are welcomed here....and in general feel free to use this forum for any items of interest to the Suncook Lakes.
Happy New Year!
Al Talieri (a member of Scarpa tribe) found this article.
Information from: Concord Monitor.
Any one know any more?
Judy (Scarpa) Leonard :)
December 26, 2006
CONCORD, N.H. --Barnstead and Pittsfield are breaking up.
This month Barnstead asked the state Board of Education for permission to withdraw from its shared school administrative unit with Pittsfield, citing money as the reason. Because multi-town SAUs pay for education with a formula that counts the number of pupils in each town and the town's assessed property valuation, Barnstead -- with students and more property wealth -- is paying a larger share of the SAU's $419,613 annual operating costs.
"There's a perceived inequity," said Keith Couch, chairman of the Barnstead School Board. "The perception is we've got less kids, so how could we be paying more?"
It's a question several wealthy towns in educational partnerships with poorer towns are asking, state education officials say. Multi-town SAUS were created several decades ago with the idea that by pooling resources, towns could provide a better education to their children, said Sarah Browning, a state education official. But with different growth rates, disagreements over how much to spend on education and widening income gaps among partnered towns, an increasing number of communities feel they're paying more than their fair share.
David Ruedig, chairman of the state Board of Education, said the trend has increased in the last five years. In the past two months, the board has heard at least half a dozen requests from towns seeking to cut ties with its poorer neighbors.
"It's all part of the property tax mess," said state board member Fred Bramante, referring to New Hampshire's system of varying local property taxes to pay for education. "It's unfortunate. And I get worried about the poor school districts."
In Pittsfield, school board chairman Scott Brown is not optimistic about the district's future without Barnstead. The town has formed a committee to research what would happen if Barnstead left -- so far they've concluded higher administrative costs and the loss of a full-time superintendent, which the town can't afford to pay for alone.
"The impact would be very negative," he said.
Under state law, board members must improve SAU break up requests as long as submitted plans are complete. So when Sunapee asked to break away from Newport and Croydon, officials had no choice but to reluctantly approve.
The situation there is extreme -- Sunapee has double the property value of Newport and Croydon combined and pays half the bills, despite having one-third the number schoolchildren.
"We approved it because we don't have the authority not to," Bramante said. "But the fact of the matter is Sunapee is rich and Newport is poor. Newport is going to take it on the chin on this, and Sunapee will be better off."
The trend isn't restricted only to towns in SAUs, in which only residents of the withdrawing town must approve the separation. Mason has been trying to rebel from the Mascenic Regional School District, which includes the poorer towns of Greenville and New Ipswich, for four years. But because Mason is in a cooperative school district, residents in all three towns must approve the breakup -- and Greenville and New Ipswich aren't letting go.
This year Mason voters took the rare move of appealing to the state. A hearings officer will investigate and report back to the board.
"I admire Mason's tenacity in the whole thing, but I understand the reluctance on the part of the other (towns)," Bramante said. "Greenville and New Ipswich are dirt poor. If Mason pulls out, they're going to have a problem."
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Happy New Year! McDude
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1/6/2007, 1:02 pm
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