Town Meeting preview: First Branch Unified District’s budget plan dips as cost per pupil grows
Published: 5/19/2021 11:26:51 PM
Modified: 5/19/2021 11:29:02 PM
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Hot topic: The warning for the First Branch Unified District’s annual meeting contains only seven articles, all of them straightforward. The budget will draw the most attention, as residents of Chelsea and Tunbridge, the district’s two towns, twice voted down budgets last year before finally approving a spending plan in October, well after the school year had begun.
Budget: The proposed budget of $6.85 million is $41,000 lower than the current school year’s spending plan, but because enrollment is projected to decline slightly, the district’s cost per equalized pupil, a measure that determines its tax rate, is projected to increase by 4.3%. The education tax rates will increase more modestly, by about 2.5 cents per $100 of assessed value in Tunbridge, and by a little less than 3 cents per $100 in
Tunbridge prepares to vote on dissolving school district, splitting from Chelsea
Modified: 1/5/2021 10:00:41 PM
TUNBRIDGE Dissolving the First Branch Unified School District could be a costly endeavor for taxpayers in Tunbridge and Chelsea if voters in the district’s two towns decide to do so.
An analysis presented by the White River Valley Supervisory Union at a meeting Monday night showed that the tax rate in Tunbridge would have been 18 cents higher per $100 of valuation this year if Tunbridge Central School was operated by a single-town district.
The rate in Chelsea would have been 20 cents higher.
The meeting, held jointly by the Tunbridge Selectboard and the First Branch district’s board, was an informational session in advance of Tunbridge’s vote on Saturday to decide whether to leave the district. About 95 different accounts logged into Zoom for the meeting, and the discussion ranged over what the vote would entail, the school district’s struggles to integrate