By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
NEWPORT — The 2018-19 proposed operating budget for the Newport School District was controlled by 45 voters at the annual deliberative session Tuesday night.
Those 45 Newport citizens out of 4,076 (0.01 percent) on the Newport checklist, supported an amendment proposed by Bert Spaulding Sr. that sliced $591,564 from the operating budget drafted by the Newport School Board.
The total operating budget now stands at $18,050,000 following the reduction.
That action also had a major impact on the projected school tax rate for Newport property owners.
Heading into Tuesday’s deliberative session the projected operating budget increase was $930,326 over the 2017-18 budget of $17,711,238.
Based on that number, the school tax rate hike was pegged at $3.89 per $1,000 of property assessments. If separate warrant articles seeking funds also prevailed on election day, the local school tax rate could have shot up to $5.20 per $1,000, it was estimated.
In addition, Newport’s total tax bite could increase even more depending on any other tax-related assessments created by the state school tax, Sullivan County tax and Newport town tax.
Now, however, the estimated school tax increase of $3.89 has been lowered by $1.37 per $1.000 to $2.52 compared to the default budget tax rate of $2.58.
Spaulding spoke many times during the deliberative session that started at 6 p.m. and ended at 9:45 p.m.
“I’m upset at the lack of understanding, it is unnecessary,” Spaulding said. “An $18.6 million budget will not pass,” he warned the crowd of 84 residents. “I have little faith in this budget. Something is wrong with the administration,” Spaulding continued.
School Board member Tim Renner said he would like to take the school board to task. “I understand the lack of trust. By going through the process what I have seen we have some of the best administrators, staff and teachers. My daughter is going to get a great education.”
“How big are we going to let this be?” Spaulding asked.
“This happened over time and not in the nine months I have been on board,” said school board member Virginia Irwin. “Concord is not the solution,” Irwin added.
During the long comment period on the operating budget there was support from both sides.
“I can’t afford any more taxes,” a woman stated. “It can’t keep coming back to the citizens of this town,” she emphasized.
“You pay your taxes or you lose your home I’m moving to hell out of here,” she said before receiving a round of applause.
“Something was missing the last two years,” according to Todd Fratzel, a Newport Selectman. “When the budget came up the school board didn’t even want to talk about the increase.
“You have to restructure the district, functional change needs to happen. You’re going to see more foreclosures,” Fratzel continued.
Prior to offering his budget-cutting amendment, Spaulding had a word of warning for the public attending the meeting. “Bring this huge increase down to the level of the default budget that you’re going to get anyway,” he said.
The estimated increase for teacher salaries in 2018-19 is $140,382 (33 cents on the tax rate) and support staff, $92,311 (21 cents on the tax rate.
Article 8 requests that the district raise and appropriate $233,000 for an Autism Program in the Middle School. This has an estimated 54-cent tax impact.
Article 10 originally sought approval of $15,000 from the Transportation Capital Reserve Fund for the purchase of a van for school use. Spaulding offered an amendment to withdraw $101,000 from the fund to purchase the van along with a new school bus to replace one of the two buses being leased currently.
One speaker noted that 17 percent of the operating budget covers Special Education in the Newport District. Gallagher said that total is now $1,053,017, a $648,442 change.
Dan Cherry, a Newport resident, reminded voters that the proposed school budget is not all about spending. Non-tax revenues are down about $500,000 he said.
During the budget discussion Gallagher compared Newport spending and teacher salaries with other surrounding schools. “Newport is moving up. We’re making progress,” she related.
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