Cooperative school district meeting draws budget confusion

Thursday, February 11, 2010

WILTON – The first budget hearing for the new, combined Wilton/Lyndeborough Cooperative School District saw lots of confusion and lots of attempts to hold down costs.

The final result, after a two-hour meeting at the cooperative school that drew about 40 people, was an operating budget of $11.4 million – a 2.2 percent increase over the last year’s combined budgets for the school districts of Wilton, Lyndeborough and Wilton/Lyndeborough, which were joined to make the new district.

The final budget included a 3.4 percent reduction on the regular education accounts, compared to the amounts spent last year by the three former districts, but extra costs caused a rise of 21.9 percent for special education, leaving an increase in the budget of about 2.2 percent or $243,000.

The $11.4 million budget does not include warrant articles.

Those articles include an addition to the Lyndeborough Central School, a deficit appropriation for special education of $160,000 at Florence Rideout Elementary School, approval of a three-year contract with school support staff (no added costs for 2010-11 school year), and $175,000 for added life-safety code improvements to Florence Rideout Elementary School.

Board Chairman Dion Lewis said an agreement with the teaching staff is still under discussion.

“We have been unable to reach an agreement this year,” he said, and salaries will remain as they are. “The problem is merging three significantly different contracts. We are trying to get a unifying contract and have agreed to disagree. About half of the teachers are getting a step increase because of existing contracts, the others are not.”

The annual district meeting will be held at the high school on Friday, March 5. The district is traditional and people must attend in order to vote.

– Jessie Salisbury