Calais School Board to Vote on Budget Jan. 13

Past event
Jan 13, 2014, 6 PM

The board will get together at Calais Elementary on Monday Jan.13 at 6:00 to take one last look at next year’s school budget before voting whether to present it for approval at town meeting on March 4.

I doubt I’ll spoil the suspense for anyone by predicting that it’ll pass on Monday.

We’ve been deliberating over this 2014-15 budget since October, and I believe the final product benefits both schoolchildren and Calais taxpayers. A 3% increase will allow the school to continue helping our kids grow and thrive in all aspects of their lives.

At the same time, thanks to good management (and good luck) we have a surplus in our fund balance that we can apply to tax relief. So the net effect of our 2014-15 budget on the tax rate is to lower taxes by $0.018.

How I wish this were all there was to it!

You may recall that our school budget (along with U-32‘s) is just one part of the education tax equation.

We also have to reckon with the statewide base tax rate and the Common Level of Appraisal. The first of these is set by state government in Montpelier; the second by the market for real estate, as calculated (again) in Montpelier.

We learned in December that both of these variables would shoot up compared to last year. Calais is taking the heaviest hit of all the U-32 towns. The one-two punch lifts our education tax rate by $0.226, burying the decrease the board wrung from the budget.

This bottom line on school taxes is frustrating for all of us. We are blessed with a community that values and generously supports the education of all Calais children. The board feels a deep obligation to respect this generosity of spirit, never to abuse it or take it for granted. We don’t like to be thwarted, even by forces beyond our control.

As always, we welcome you to join us at 6:00 p.m. on Monday the 13th in the library at Calais Elementary School. We greatly appreciate your questions, insights, and perspectives. If you’d just like to observe, that’s fine too. We hope you'll find our discussions useful to you in return.

Back to Calendar

Other Local Events