Combined district preps for first meeting

Thursday, March 4, 2010

WILTON – The first meeting of the newly combined School Districts of Wilton and Lyndeborough will address several large projects in both towns, a deficit from the current year at Wilton Elementary and a new contract with the combined support staff.

The meeting will be held Friday, March 5, in the high school cafeteria beginning at 7 p.m.

A contract has not yet been reached with the teaching staff so the board is asking that a fund of $73,000 be established to cover legal fees and other liabilities connected with the negotiations. The money would come from an unexpended fund balance at the end of the school year.

The proposed operating budget is $11.25 million, which is about a 2 percent increase over the combined current budgets.

For Lyndeborough Central School, $990,000 is asked for an addition to the school to house kindergarten plus two standard classrooms. The Lyndeborough Budget Committee recommended one more try at an addition since state funding for kindergartens will soon be gone.

The project requires a two-thirds vote of those present.

The special education deficit totals $160,000, but up to $90,000 of that should be reimbursed by state catastrophic aid. The balance would come from Wilton’s state adequacy education funds.

The collective bargaining agreement with the support staff does not require an appropriation in the first year, and in 2011-12 year will cost $4,507.

Capital improvements to Florence Rideout School to meet the remaining life-safety code items are estimated at $175,000.

Under the Articles of Agreement, Wilton voters will pay for Florence Rideout repairs and renovations and Lyndeborough voters will bear the costs of enlarging Lyndeborough Central School.

If there is enough money left at the end of the year, $35,000 is asked for the fund for educationally disabled students, and $25,000 to be added to the building and roadway reconstruction fund at the high/middle school.

Lyndeborough residents are reminded that the cooperative district has a traditional form of meeting, and a resident must be present in order to vote on articles.

Voting for district officers will take place Tuesday, March 9, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m., in Wilton at the Town Hall, and from 8 a.m.-7 p.m. at the Lyndeborough Town Hall on Center Road.

Jessie Salisbury can be reached at 654-9704 or jessies@tellink.net.