Meeting on School Funding
Friday, January 6, 2017 at 3:28PM The Canaan Select Board has been leading a proposal to change the way towns in the Mascoma School District fund schools. You may have read about it in the Valley News. The plan put forward by Canaan would factor property valuations into the funding formula; the proposal maintains that this would cut Orange's taxes.
An additional proposal would have school board members chosen by towns instead of the current at-large elections. This proposal would give the Orange representative a partial vote, while Canaan and Enfield would each receive two full votes.
Canaan Adminitrator Mike Sampson announced a public meeting to discuss a specific proposal. The announcement states that "several town governments" have been discussing the proposal "for several weeks." As far as we know, Orange wasn't included in that discussion, though Orange Select Board members were asked to respond with their opinion on several questions in an email.
The meeting will be be held Sunday, January 8 at 7 pm in Canaan Hall (Canaan Fairgrounds). You can see the draft plan here.
Reader Comments (1)
Curious if the Select Board has an opinion on this. Also, how do warrant articles work that apply to the district, rather than just the town -- is it just a majority vote among all members of the district (independent of town), or must each town agree, or something else?
As explained, it certainly seems to be in at least the current interest of Orange and Grafton, and not so good for the other towns. Is there any reason to think this could flip in the future?