Hancock, Granville School Boards
Face Tough Choices, Ask for Input
By Martha Slater

The Hancock, Granville and combined Village School boards are asking for input from voters in the two towns on a number of tough issues related to the budget and the future of education.

The public is urged to attend a joint board meeting Wednesday, February 7 at 7 p.m. at the Granville School to enter into a discussion relating to the Village School contracts and various options regarding the Village School and Hancock and Granville students, including changing the assessment portions paid by each town.

Other options to be discussed include closing the Village School districts and tuitioning students from Hancock and Granville towns to other school districts via school choice.

At a January 25 meeting, Hancock board chair Jill Jesso-White led a review of the expenditure budget for the 2007-08 school year. WNWSU Supt. Tim Mock reported the good news that the fund balance for Hancock was actually $45,000. Prior to the audit, he had thought it was a zero fund balance.

Mock presented five budget options to consider. If the boards kept the current arrangement with a 36/64 Granville/Hancock split for 2007-08, the first budget of $859,281 would result in a tax rate of 2.053, an increase of 29.5% over last year. Using the rolling three-year student average, Hancock’s assessment for the Village School budget would be 67.54% ($306,897) and Granville’s assessment would be 32.46% ($147,496).

After a lengthy discussion and review of the five options presented, both the Hancock and Granville boards agreed to recommend Option #2, which proposes a 2007-08 expenditure budget of $780,392. With a 50/50 Village assessment split, this amount would result in a tax rate of 1.796, an increase of 11.7% over last year’s tax rate of 1.586.

The board members noted that the difficult dilemma they faced was "balancing what’s best for our kids versus what people in our two towns can afford."

In other business, the Hancock board reviewed the town survey completed by Norm Smith for Dan Delorm’s property and all agreed that the school fence should be moved immediately. The concrete landing and fence posts will be moved when weather permits in the spring. Mock will check with the State Fire Marshall’s office for modifications that will need to be done to the building’s fire escape.

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