Your property taxes are going to go up a LOT.  Here’s why.

Your property tax bill is going up considerably very soon.    Much of it is because of the Thornton Central School.  In addition to a proposed 8% increase in the school budget (which means we’ll spend about $30,800 per student), your school board is looking to renovate and expand the Thornton Central School at a cost of approximately $14.2 million and another $1.5 million for a new library.

The school addition adds 62% to the school footprint.  It’s both unnecessary given the declining school population (227 kids ten years ago, 185 today see the figure below) and extravagant (construction costs of $531 per square foot).  Together these two bond proposals would raise property your taxes by $2.32 per thousand-dollar evaluation (that’s the estimate from the Superintendent).  But in addition, they also want an 8% increase in the school operating budget.  Here’s what this means:

School renovation and addition

The school board contends they are out of space and the new addition is desperately needed.  The following facts show this isn’t true.

The school has an enrollment of 185 this year, expected to grow by one for next year.  The existing school is 35,911 square feet which is 194 square feet per student.  National estimates are 120-150 square feet per student.  So, 194 square feet per student (43% more than the national average seems more than satisfactory.  But they want more.  The new addition would add 22,409 square feet for a total of 58,320, a whopping 315 square feet per student.

Doing some research and using the state’s “Right to Know” law, I have some insights on why they claim they don’t have enough space.  In short, they use too many classrooms for too few kids.  Here are two examples:

In the seventh and eighth grades there are 34 students. They use four teachers and four classrooms to accommodate these 34 kids. A student teacher ratio of 8.5 students per teacher. New Hampshire state guidelines say these classrooms should accommodate 128 students [1].

 

Second grade has 21 students. They use two teachers and two classrooms, a student-teacher ratio of 10.5.  New Hampshire state guidelines say these classrooms should accommodate 46 students.

What’s causing this supposed “shortage of space”?  The answer is that the school uses an arbitrary cutoff of 20 students per grade.  That means if there are 19 students, they use one teacher and one classroom; and if there are 20 students, they hire another teacher and use one additional classroom.

I say this is arbitrary because the New Hampshire Department of Education has recommendations [2] as to student teacher ratios.  They are:

• K-2, 25 students or fewer per educator, provided that each school shall strive to achieve the class size of 20 students or fewer per educator.
• Grades 3, 4, 5, 30 students or fewer per educator, provided that each school shall strive to achieve the class size of 25 students or fewer per educator.
• Grades 6 – 8, 30 students or fewer per educator.

Bottom line is that a 20-student limit causes a lot of problems and a lot of wasted space.

In fairness, though, we do need to spend some money.  Because of the shortsightedness of your School Board, they have failed to budget for any major maintenance over the past ten years.  To bring the current building up to code, replace boilers, lighting, etc., they estimate almost $4.2 million for this effort.

At the bond hearing on January 23, 2023, I asked what the impact on the bond would be to the town.  Their answer was that the school bond issue would add $2.10 per thousand to the tax rate.  Last year’s rate was $20.01 per thousand.  But this is just the cost of the bond.  With an additional 22,409 square feet, there will be added costs for heat, electricity, custodians, etc.  The School Board doesn’t know or won’t disclose those costs.

What’s disturbing is that the School Board convened a committee to study the school situation.  It was comprised of ten townspeople.  Yet after more than a year, they did not produce a report stating why this effort is warranted.  The town needs to know exactly why we need to spend this money.

New town library

Because the school shares a library with the town, they are also insisting on a new library.  The cost of that is $1.5 million.  Without any analysis as to the usage of the library by students and the public, the School Board decided to scope a new library. It’s projected at 2,804 square feet and would cost $531/square foot.  (Note that not one single house in the town of Thornton sold for that amount.)

The school board is asking for another bond for this amount.  Using their analysis that a $14.5 million bond increases taxes by $2.10 per thousand, the bond for the library will add $0.22 per thousand to the tax rate.

Total impact on the property tax rate:

[1] Here is the LINK, scroll down to section 321.10:G and H

[2] Here is the LINK, scroll down to read section 306.17

For more information, send an email to info@stopthetax.info

Why is this website necessary?

Despite the huge tax impact on Thornton taxpayers, neither the Thornton School Board, nor the Library Trustees have been forthcoming as to why these construction projects are necessary.  Much of the info above was received only after a “Right to Know” request to the SAU office.  (Right to Know is the state equivalent of the federal “Freedom of Information Act”.)  Because of this dearth of information, a group of concerned Thornton taxpayers formed an ad hoc group to inform the public, the Thornton Taxpayers Group (TTG).  We’ve received literally dozens of communications from taxpayers saying, “Why didn’t I know this?”, “Why don’t they tell us what’s going on?”.  So, it seems our website is doing its job.  If you’d like more information, contact our webmaster, RV Hatcher, at info@stopthetax.info.