CABOT — The Cabot School Board has voted on a budget to present to the voters on Town Meeting Day. There are four options.
The least expensive option was to close grades 7 to 12 and designate another school (potentially Twinfield) for these students to attend. This option would allow negotiation of a lower tuition rate with that school. The tax rate would be $1.93, which is up $.16 from this current year.
The second least expensive option is keeping the grades 7 to 12 in Cabot and designating a school for Cabot high school students. The tax rate would be $2.06, which is up $.28 from this current year.
The third option is to continue to operate as a Pre-K to 12 school. The tax rate would be $2.14, which is up $.37 from this current year. This is the option the Cabot School Board voted for, and it will be on the ballot.
The fourth option is to operate a Pre-K to 8 and pay tuition to the high school selected by each family (School Choice). This is the most expensive option, with a minimum tax rate of $2.20, which is up $.43 from this current year. It is a minimum tax rate because it does not take into consideration any additional students who are currently being home schooled, and it also does not take any special education costs into account. This option is submitted because a petition was submitted in favor of it. It will be on the school ballot, although the school board is unanimously opposed to it.
The school board stated that “none of these options are great, so it was not an easy decision. We are thankful to have heard from quite a few community members, and most of the feedback we received was to keep our high school open. The town has had the chance to vote on whether to close the high school three times in the past 10 years and has always voted against it. We hope to make our case to you, the voters, as to why we believe keeping a Pre-K to 12 school is the best choice.
Cabot Community member Rory Thibault’s photo “A Bright Day in Cabot” was selected as the second-place winner in 2024’s “Meaning of Cabot” photo contest.
“We know that this budget increase is hard, but we also know that 74% of households in Cabot receive help from the state paying the school tax. Twenty-one percent of households pay only a flat 2% of their income, 53% pay the Income Sensitive rate of 2.72% of their income, another 8% pay a combination of the Income Sensitive rate and the Homestead Tax Rate, and 18% of taxpayers, those with household income over $137,000, will pay the full rate of $2.14.
The board states that most of the budget increase is due to factors outside of local control: the substantial extra cost required to buy heating oil since the wood chip plant broke down last year, a 16.4% increase in health insurance costs, and inflation raising the prices of everything from food to supplies.
There is one new budget item within board control, and that is for $50,000 to start to pay off a loan of $500,000 (warned separately on the ballot), which is to reconfigure the school so that the elementary grades are in the main building and the high school is in satellite buildings.
For more information, contact any school board member, Ellen Cairns, Erica Fucello, Frank Kampf, Jason Monaco or Chris Tormey. All email addresses are first name.last [email protected].
