Districts to vote on tech center budget

Residents within four local school districts will vote at town meeting on a proposed River Valley Technical Center budget that is rising slightly.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201002040353             # # # # Districts to vote on tech center budget ¶ Rutland Herald ¶ By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: February 2, 2010 ¶ SPRINGFIELD — Residents within four local school districts will vote at town meeting on a proposed River Valley Technical Center budget that is rising slightly. ¶ Member towns of the Bellows Falls, Black River, Green Mountain and Springfield school districts will vote by ballot March 2 on a proposed budget of $2,981,430 for fiscal year 2010-11, an increase of $12,408 or 0.4 percent compared to the current amount of $2,969,022. ¶ While the 10 towns within these four sending districts will face the full $2.9-million budget on the ballot, each district will be assessed an amount of money based upon the average number of students they sent to RVTC during the last six semesters. ¶ For Springfield residents, the assessment is rising $38,664, or 6.3 percent, from $613,713 to $652,377. For the four towns within the Bellows Falls Union High School District — Athens, Grafton, Rockingham and Westminster — the assessment is increasing $21,349, or 8.1 percent, $264,967 to $286,316. ¶ Residents of Ludlow and Mount Holly, which comprise the Black River Union High School District, will be presented an assessment that is increasing $6,249, or 4.8 percent, from $129,280 to $135,529. However, residents within the Green Mountain Union High School District, which includes Andover, Cavendish and Chester, are seeing their assessment decrease $2,837, or 1 percent, from $273,181 to $270,344. ¶ The increases are not being driven by rising enrollment — full-time equivalent numbers of students from each sending district are declining — as much as declining numbers from the Fall Mountain Regional School District in New Hampshire. Recently, the district capped the number of FTE pupils who could attend RVTC at 55, said Carl Mock, RVTC director. ¶ "They (Fall Mountain) didn't have as much in their tech-ed budget as we hoped originally, and that was a big contributor that actually caused the Vermont side to go up," Mock said. ¶ Overall, the cost for each full-time equivalent student is increasing $969, or 8.8 percent, from $10,951 to $11,920. ¶ Budget increases include salary and benefit raises, and insurance costs rising as much as 4 percent. Cuts include reduced summer hours for guidance staff and one fewer paraprofessional. Also, one of RVTC's 18 programs will be cut in half. Mock said the decision for which program will be cut would not be made until RVTC completes its recruitment of students. ¶ Mock noted Springfield residents would pay $33,600 less than they did in 2007. ¶