6:30 p.m. Annual Town Meeting Review with Moderator
Budget and Warrant
MTRSD Assessment Amendment, Budge Litchfield and Ken Rocke Discussion of the Regional agreement amendment which the district requested be on the warrant:
[Added info] DESE Chapter 70 Program "The Chapter 70 program is the major program of state aid to public elementary and secondary schools. In addition to providing state aid to support school operations, it also establishes minimum spending requirements for each school district and minimum requirements for each municipality's share of school costs." Chapter 70 Charter School "Charter schools are independent public schools designed to encourage innovative educational practices. Charter schools are funded by tuition charges assessed against the school districts where the students reside. The state provides partial reimbursement to the sending districts for the tuition costs incurred." Charter Schools Choice School "The inter-district school choice program under G.L. c. 76, § 12B, allows families to enroll their children in schools in communities other than the city or town in which they reside. Tuition is paid by the sending district to the receiving district." School Choice Resident public students attending District Schools Towns pay both a Minimum Local Contribution and an Above Minimum Contribution. Average MLC and AMB are both about $8,000. Interest of Estimates on MTRSD may just be one fifth of the assessment. If this is true and the assessment is incremental, then the assessments for the next 5 years would be $13,000 in FY24, then $26,00 in FY25, $39,000 in FY26, $52,000 in FY27, and $65,000 in FY28 and level off at $65,000 every year from then on. In some case the interests of the various towns and the interests of the district are not going to coincide, there are winners and losers.
1 Comment
Notes
Salt Shed Update Study of two sites for salt shed—current or Bray Road—will start next week. Brian has offered to continue to work on the Salt Shed project as a volunteer after retiring from the SB. Downsizing Mike Shattuck benefits will continue to July 1: this includes all vacation, all wages, all currently enrolled insurance. If Mike chooses to accept a job before July 1, the above benefits will still continue to July 1. New Computer for Treasurer SB voted to get new computer from Northeast IT FY 24 Budget The budget and warrant are reaching a final state and the Finance Committee will vote next week on their recommendations.
Community Hall
There was a lot of discussion about the highway department as that is our biggest expense after the $1,000,000 plus Mohawk School District assessment.
Alice Wozniak of the finance committee compared the Mohawk budget to another like district whose budget was $10,000,000 less than Mohawk. Did I get that right? Holy smoke! Some Select Board Humor: A tongue-in-cheek comment was made that we could hire a bus and send our kids to Deerfield Academy or Northfield Mount Herman as day students for less money that it costs to send them to Mohawk. Meeting Notes Budget discussion with Finance Committee FinComm recommendations to try to mitigate the increased financial burden the town faces next fiscal year:
Review of Minutes: 3/21/23, 3/28/23 Votes to be done at next meeting (due to posting error): o Joining Age-and Dementia-Friendly Communities recommendation from COA
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Acronyms & References
. STM 2023 Truck Handout ADA Accessibility of Sawyer Hall SB Public Statement on AT&T Tower Archives
January 2025
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