Lyndon Education: All About the Funds
- Details
- Created on Friday, 23 February 2018 00:00
- Written by Andrew Whalen
LYNDON- 2017 was a year of uncertainty at Lyndon's Town Meeting Day. The voters had the choice: to join seven other school districts and become a unified school district, or find another option. The vote passed with room to spare, and as of July 1st, 2018, Lyndon will merge into the Kingdom East Unified School District.
"Last year's Town Meeting Day, there were a lot of questions, a lot of comments, a lot of concerns," said Caledonia North Supervisory Union Superintendent Jennifer Botzojorns. "Part of it was the unknown, part of it was a state law from outside suggesting what to do."
The focus this year: completely different.
"There's a number of article on the warning about what to do with reserve funds," stated Botzojorns.
Botzojorns explained that at the end of every year, if a school district has a surplus, they vote to put it into a capital reserve fund. What Lyndon voters have to decide is if they want to take that money and place it into a fund specifically for physical improvements to Lyndon's schools.
"It appears confusing, because there's all these articles about this fund. But essentially, what it is is taking money that was raised by Lyndon taxpayers and keeping it to serve the facility at Lyndon Town School."
Botzojorns also pointed out that many people misunderstand the state's tax formula to generate how much one has to pay towards education.
"The way the formula works is that the money is redistributed back to us. That money actually went to the state and then came back in a different formula."
Basically, what a taxpayer pays on education is not what they contribute to their specific town. The money goes to the state, and is then redistributed back to towns.
"Do I support this? I support this because I know everyone in Lyndon does, with the understanding of how the money is distributed," stated Botzojorns.
Also on Town Meeting Day, the positions of School District Moderator, School Director and School District Treasurer are also up for election. Those positions will only be in existence from TMD to June 30th. Once CNSU dissolves and becomes Kingdom East, those positions will also disappear.
