By Jodi Wolfe
Staff Writer

There are four warrant articles up for approval at Epsom’s School District Meeting this year. A$6.78 million bond for an addition to Epsom Central School is the most expensive item besides the operating budget on this year’s warrant. The articles will be discussed at the deliberative session of School District Meeting on Thursday, Feb. 10, at Epsom Central School, at 7 p.m.

The increase is driven by the teacher’s contract, high school tuition and employee benefits, said Dave Dziura, assistant superintendent of SAU 53.

The biggest part of the $553,000 increase is the high school tuition to Pembroke Academy, he said. Both the cost of tuition and the number of students increased. Tuition increased by 3 percent, making it $7,453 per student, and the school board anticipates sending more than 40 additional students to Pembroke Academy next year, totaling 249. The current eighth-grade class is bigger than the graduating 12th grade class, said Dziura.

Another part of the 15 percent increase came from the second half of the teacher’s contract, which is $127,000 for next year, he said. Employee benefits also increased by $89,204 because of a 10 percent increase in health benefits.

Addition
Warrant Article 1 will ask voters to approve a 10-year bond at 4.5 interest for an addition to Epsom Central School. The current estimate for the project is $6,782,585, which includes eight new classrooms, a new cafeteria and kitchen, a new heating system and expanded library space.

Epsom Central School has 511 students, and the addition would allow the school to have a capacity of 725 students, in line with 10-year projections.

However, Epsom Central School Principal Jane Fargo said that, despite what some people may say, the main point of the project is not about future numbers, but about immediate problems in the school.

The proposed addition is not about enrollment numbers for the next 10 years.

“It’s not what’s going to happen in the future,” Fargo said. “It’s what’s happening right now.

Currently, students needing special assistance such as reading and special education are in tiny classrooms, which are inadequate to take care of the special needs they have, Fargo said.

The school’s heating and ventilation system is at the end of its useful life, she said. There are also three classes are in a modular classroom, and two teachers do not have classrooms, forcing them to travel from room to room to teach.

“Obviously, from the school point of view, all of our kids would be in the same building,” Fargo said about the proposed addition. “Certainly the ventilation and heating system will be a huge improvement.”

Currently, all the first-grade classes have 20 or 21 students. The school board and the administration prefer first-grade classes of 15 to 16 students, but there is no room for another first-grade class.

If the bond is approved, the tax rate increase for next year would 96 cents per $1,000 of property value. That would come out of the estimated $26.40 of the local and state education tax rates, said Dziura. That would mean an additional $192 in property tax for the year on a home valued at $200,000.

After next year, the tax rate is expected to increase by $3.88 in the highest year and $2.34 in the last year of the bond.

The warrant article also asks voters to approve raising $172,956 for the first bond payment.

The Epsom School District has locked in 40 percent reimbursement from the state if voters approve the bond.

A three-fifths majority vote is required on the bond warrant article and, if approved, the addition would be completed for 2006-07 school year.

Operating budget
The proposed operating budget is $6,846,918, which is 15 percent higher than last year’s operating budget of $5,948,420. That’s nearly a million-dollar increase.

If the operating budget is defeated, the default budget will be $6,642,297. Last year the operating budget passed.

The operating budget would not include the bond for the addition, the support staff contract or the money for the deficit.

Deficit
One warrant article will ask voters to approve raising $72,071 to pay for a deficit from the 2004-05 school year for unanticipated high school tuition and special education costs.

Last year, the school board had budgeted to send 216 students to Pembroke Academy at $7,236 a student, but 229 showed up on the first day of school, said Dziura.

When the school board looked at that deficit in the fall, it determined the deficit could be made up by reducing spending in other areas, he said.

Then a new student came into the district with special education needs, leaving the school district with a total deficit of about $163,000. The deficit could not be made up by cuts alone, said Dziura.

The school district has cut spending in various ways, including not hiring a replacement for someone who left.

While it’s not easy without that position, the administration made an agreement to deal with the situation until the end of the current school year, said Dziura.

Union pay
Voters will also be asked to approve raising $12,289 from taxes for the 2005-06 fiscal year for increases in salary and benefits based on a collective bargaining agreement that was reached between the Epsom School Board and the Epsom Support Staff Association.

The Epsom Support Staff Association, made up of mainly paraprofessionals and some secretaries, is a newly created union, said Dziura. The association just had an election last year to be recognized as the official collective bargaining union from the public labor board.

Since a contract for the support staff had never existed, there was not time for the school board and the association to negotiate future years in this contract for the March election, said Dziura.