One of the things that stood out at the annual meeting of the Croydon School District Saturday afternoon had to do with tuitioning students to nearby schools once the fourth grade level has been reached at the Croydon Village School.
It is a costly experience for a small community such as Croydon with a small tax base, but one that rises to the top of budget concerns on an annual basis.
Croydon has 60 tuition students that go to various schools. That number is 15 more than it was two years ago.
One piece of information surfaced at the annual meeting Saturday at Croydon. The School district does not want to face any increased tuition costs in the next school year. In fact, that information was quite clear and right up front.
According to Croydon Superintendent Frank Perrotti Jr., the current Newport charge was $15,124 per student for all Croydon students from Grade 5-12.
Officials in Croydon, as they should, will be talking with Newport and other area school districts and the main theme of those discussions will zero right in on the tuition costs.
Corydon’s regular education overall increases in the 2020-21 budget increased $5,553. Elementary tuition increases based on change in budgeting for each student at the anchor school rate.
This amount spans a steady increased in students over the past four years—45 students to 60 over this time span.
Right now, Croydon has three tuition students going to Lebanon;15 to Sunapee; 27 to Newport; 12 to the Newport Montessori School; one to Crossroads and two to Claremont.
Superintendent Perrotti said negotiations have been going on with Newport school officials but other schools are also being checked out including Sunapee, Newport Montessori, Kearsarge, Lebanon and Claremont.
Keep in mind that Newport is charging $15,124, according to Perrotti while Sunapee is $14,350 and the Montessori school is $8,800.
“I’d like to have an arrangement with Newport,” Perrotti said following the Croydon School District Meeting Saturday.
00000
At the end of that session, Perrotti asked if any citizens at the meeting had any questions about CORVID-19. There were none.
“Unless someone tells us we have to close, we will stay open, I guess. If we do close we have made plans for online instruction, the teachers are prepared and we will keep everybody updated.”
An attempt to reduce the budget item for the SAU office, Perrotti was asked about his hours of work. “It was based on two days a week but I work up to four days, probably 30-35 hours a week,” he responded.
“He enjoys what he does and doesn’t look at the hours,” was a response from the floor.
That had to be the No. 1 comment of the two-hour meeting.
Not one person voted to reduce the SAU appropriation, which speaks well for Perrotti’s effort.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.
