State funding touted by backers of school addition

Thursday, February 25, 2010

MILFORD – The need for an addition to the Jacques School is like the need for proper auto maintenance, School Board Chairman Peter Bragdon said this week: The school can get away without the extra space for awhile, “but eventually the work should be done,”

On the ballot for the March 9 elections is $1.7 million for a four-classroom addition to the school, which houses kindergarten and first grade. A state grant would pay for 75 percent, and Milford’s share would be $438,000.

The district would not appropriate the money if state funding does not come through, say school officials.

State-mandated kindergarten started in September and the approximately 134 new students make the addition necessary, they say. The addition is meant to house first graders, with kindergarten children in the rooms formerly used by the first graders.

Portable buildings that were intended to temporarily relieve crowding have been held up since September by coding issues, and a decision on whether to install them at all will probably wait for the vote in March, said Bragdon.

Bragdon said the school needs more space, and the need will increase as the school population, whose growth now is relatively flat, starts to grow again.

“They are making do now, although not with ideal resources,” he said. For example, “there is no dedicated library space. The librarian can come visit, but the kids can’t actually take books out.

“We might as well do it now, when we only have to pay 25 percent, than do it two years from now, when we have to pay 100 percent.”

Bob Willette had been the only School Board member to oppose the addition, but at the school district Deliberative Session he announced that he had changed his mind.

The appropriation would have a first-year tax impact of 1 cent per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2011, adding $3 to the annual tax bill of a $300,000 home. That tax impact would rise over the course of the remaining nine years to almost 7 cents.

Also on the school district warrant will be:

An operating budget that now stands at $35.7 million after voters at the Deliberative Session amended it upwards by $419,451, saying they want to avoid reductions in staff hours. The board has voted 3-2 to oppose it.

The amended operating budget would increase the tax rate by about 51 cents, for a $153 increase on a $300,000 house.

Cost items in an administrators’ contract, and an article to spend $110,000 on the lot at 90 West St. for more high school parking.

Election Day is Tuesday, March 9, and the polling place is Milford Middle School. Polls will be open from 6 a.m.-8 p.m.

Kathy Cleveland can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 21, or kcleveland@cabinet.com.