Uncategorized

‘Jeopardized’: Croydon residents voice opposition to school budget cut

By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CROYDON — The Croydon School Board finds itself in a precarious scenario following Saturday’s Town Meeting when voters used a floor vote to cut the governing body’s advertised budget by 53 percent.

At the Town Meeting, Croydon voters amended the district’s proposed budget of $1,704,000 to only $800,000, with $79,534 to be raised by taxes. Voters then passed the reduced budget by a 20-14 vote.

Approximately 100 Croydon residents packed the town meeting hall on Monday night to convey their outrage to the school board, calling the amended budget “reckless” and “irresponsible.”

“I totally understand about a vote happening,” said resident Lynn Touchette. “However, there is an assumption, morally and legally, that when something is brought to a vote that it is something doable.”

Many residents attributed Saturday’s winter storm for discouraging turnout at the Town Meeting, in which only about 3 percent of Croydon’s 565 registered voters participated in the school budget vote.

Residents also accused board Chair Jody Underwood of knowing in advance about the plan to amend the budget, as her husband, Ian Underwood motioned the amendment and even distributed a pamphlet explaining his rationale.

Croydon, a small town with just under 80 student enrollments, has only one school building, the Croydon Village School, that serves 24 children in grades K-4. Students in grades 5-12 are tuitioned to the family’s choice of contracted schools, which includes public and private options.

The majority of Croydon’s tuition students, 20 of 49 students, attend the Newport School District, which serves as Croydon’s anchor district.

But Newport’s tuition rate next school year will increase from $16,079 to $17,880, or a 15 percent increase.

The amended budget aims to limit Croydon’s per pupil spending to approximately $10,000 per pupil, which Ian Underwood said he based on an approximation of 80 students.

This $10,000 per pupil figure falls far below the tuition rates of Croydon’s contracting public school districts, which include Newport, Claremont and Sunapee.

Only two private schools contracting with Croydon — Newport Montessori School and Mount Royal Academy — have tuition below $10,000. But residents say that the Newport Montessori School has reached its enrollment capacity while Mount Royal Academy is a Catholic school, which means that Croydon families cannot be compelled to enroll there.

Thomas Moore, a former school board member, noted that Croydon actually has less than $10,000 per pupil at its disposal, once calculating other operating expenses.

“When everyone is saying $10,000 per student, it’s really not,” Moore said. “Because legally, by the state of New Hampshire, we have to pay for special education and we have to pay for administration. So we have to take that off the top of that money now.”

The school district originally proposed a special education budget next year of $72,637, projecting an increase of $29,500 next year to special education services. This budget does not include salary and benefits or tuition for students placed in specialized out-of-district programs.

Other expenses include school transportation and facility operations, which are both projected to increase next year due to rising fuel costs.

Residents directed their criticism toward board members, particularly Underwood, whose husband, a town selectman, initiated the budget cut proposal.

Ian Underwood, a longtime critic of public education, equated Croydon’s original budget proposal as “ransom” in a blog published on Saturday, March 12.

Underwood’s proposal of a $10,000 per pupil cap did not include an actual budget. Instead, Underwood contended that increasing education spending does not correlate to improved learning outcomes and that public schools should be able to manage on similar budgets to those of private or charter schools.

While board members said they abstained from the vote on Saturday, some board members were receptive to the new budget.

“This gives us an opportunity,” Jody Underwood told the community. “This is going to force us to step back and figure out a good way to do this [based] on what we know about how people learn, so that we can keep costs down.”

“To say that we cannot do this, [given the lower cost of many learning alternatives], is more a failure of imagination,” said board member Aaron McKeon.”

But families in attendance expressed displeasure about the few suggested solutions, which included online learning options like Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS) or “learning pods,” a small-group learning module consisting of approximately five to 10 students per instructor.

Prenda, a New Hampshire-based educational service provider, has a curriculum aligned to New Hampshire learning standards and provides instructors, who would meet with the learning pods in Croydon.

Underwood said the tuition cost of this option would only be around $5,000 per student, which would allow sufficient money to cover other district expenses.

But many families criticized this option, particularly if it meant having to withdraw their children from their current school.

Angi Beaulieu, a former Croydon School Board member, said these budget limitations will force families into undesired schools, effectively dismantling the school choice plan that the board had toiled so long to create.

“We have told [families] that they can choose any school that they want and that we would pay for it,” Beaulieu said. “So all that work that you did is now jeopardized.”

Earlier in the meeting the school board told families that while Croydon has an anchor agreement with Newport, the Croydon board does not have to allow families to enroll there.

Underwood pointed out that the board has only had two days to individually consider solutions and needs more time and opportunity to explore options.

“We are only two days into this,” Underwood said. “We don’t have a lot of ideas yet. We have a few.”

The board also said it plans to contact its contracting school districts to discuss the possibility of reducing the tuition. The contracting school districts include Newport, Sunapee and Claremont.

The board initially intended to spend Monday discussing ways to operate under the new budget but rescheduled the working meeting to Tuesday, Mar. 22 at 6 p.m. at the Village School. The meeting is open to the public and public comments will be allowed, though the board members stressed the need to focus on a budget plan.

“We will have to figure out what the options are, what is available to us and how to reorganize at this point,” said newly elected board member Kevin Morris. “The only way of that is for the vote on Saturday to be reversed. And I don’t know if it would be proper to do that.”

School officials said they have already spoken with state officials and confirmed that Saturday’s vote was valid and legally binding. While New Hampshire statute, RSA 32:18, contains a “10 percent rule,” which prevents amendments from increasing the recommended budget by more than 10 percent, there is no state limit regarding amending to decrease.

reporter @eagletimes.com

Avatar photo

As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.