RUHS, RTCC Budgets

Voted Tuesday; Up 3%

By Sandy Vondrasek

Voters in Braintree, Brookfield, and Randolph will head to their respective polling places next Tuesday, Feb. 5, to vote on an $8-million Randolph Union High School budget, and a $2.6-million budget for Randolph Technical Career Center.

The RUHS budget carries a 3% increase and the RTCC budget is up 3.2%.

At the polls, voters will also be asked, as they have for the past several years, to place the surplus from the prior year’s RUHS budget into a building maintenance fund. This year the surplus amount is $296,223.

Neither budget reflects any new programs, but like all budgets in the district, the RUHS and RTCC budgets include an amount that school boards anticipate will cover uncertain increases in teachers’ salary. Negotiations between the Orange Southwest Supervisory Union and its teachers are underway.

The 3% increases in the high school and tech center budgets represent the biggest percentage increases in a long time, as budgets have been kept in the neighborhood of 1% increases for years. Even so, the RUHS and RTCC budgets are well below the state average school budget increase of just over 4%.

Averaged district-wide, OSSU is once again coming in with one of the lowest, or perhaps the lowest budget increase in the state, according to Supt. Brent Kay. This year, proposed budgets for the three elementary schools are tight, with Braintree up 2.28%, Brookfield down .09% and Randolph up 1.57%.

Kay noted that OSSU, which has had a 14% drop in enrollments over five years, has cut staff across the district by 16% during that time.

The sad news—and this happens frequently, throughout the state—is that tax rates in the three towns will increase more than budgets. And in OSSU, as in districts statewide, the primary reason for the increase is the CLA—the difference between town property values on the grand list and what the state thinks those properties are worth.

OSSU has estimated that Braintree’s school tax rate will increase by 23¢ to $1.58. Kay said this week that without the CLA factor, the rate would increase only by 6¢, to $1.41. It’s a similar CLA tale for Brookfield, whose tax rate is anticipated to increase by 11¢ to $1.23; and for Randolph, with an anticipated 8¢ increase, to a $1.18 school tax rate. Most voters in the district, however, will see their tax bill increases limited by income sensitivity measures in the law.

New Format

Speaking of the law, school funding continues to transform annually, and this year, thanks to Act 130, RUHS has its own tax rate of 68-70¢, depending on the town. And in terms of income, RUHS will be paid through the state education fund, instead of via assessments from Randolph, Brookfield and Randolph.

The RUHS and RTCC annual Report to Voters, containing detailed budgets and reports on the two schools, is inserted in this week’s Herald.

Voters with questions about the budget are urged to attend an informational meeting Monday night, Feb. 4, 7:30 p.m. at the RUHS Murray Auditorium.

The auditorium will also be the site of the annual meeting of "Union School District #2" the following night, again at 7:30 p.m., when non-monetary articles—election of the moderator, school district clerk and treasurer—are handled. The meeting is traditionally brief and sparsely attended, but those who come do get to hear the results of the day’s budget voting.

Polling places on Tuesday, Feb. 5 are as follows:

• Braintree—Town Clerk’s Office, 10-a.m.-7 p.m.

• Brookfield—Brookfield Elementary School, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

• Randolph—RUHS Murray Auditorium, 10-a.m.-7 p.m.