Influx of tuition students leads to deficit in Croydon

By SARAH EARLE

Valley News Staff Writer

Like many rural New England towns, Croydon has historically maintained a lean budget.

The tax rate in this community of roughly 750 people, which has no library of its own and relies on contracted emergency medical services, rose just a little more than $3 in 10 years — from $13.09 in 2009 to $16.23 in 2018 — and budget cuts are not unusual. Last year, the school eliminated a full-time teacher at the tiny Croydon Village School, after enrollment dipped to just 28 students in grades K through 4.

Lately, though, the idea of adding a little wiggle room to the school budget has begun to gain traction among school officials as they deal with one effect of landmark legislation, signed into law in June 2017, that allows students in Croydon to attend private schools using public money.

“Over the past few months it’s become clear that because of school choice, we’ve really become a popular area for families to move to,” said newly elected Croydon School Board member Cecily Fellows. “I think maybe we weren’t prepared for that influx.”

Students in grades 5 through 12 who live in Croydon can choose among several area public and private schools, thanks to Senate Bill 8, also known as the “Croydon bill,” which legitimized a privilege some residents had been practicing since 2014. The bill allows school districts without public schools to create agreements with any public or private school, with the exception of religious schools, and to pay the tuition of the receiving school.

Before breaking off to form its own SAU in 2015, Croydon was part of SAU 43, which also includes the Newport School District, and contracted with Newport schools for all of its students in grades 5 through 12. The largest portion of Croydon students in grades 5 through 12 — 28 this year — still attend Newport schools. The next two largest partnering schools are Sunapee Middle and High School, with 15 Croydon students, and the Newport Montessori School, with nine Croydon students.

In the past few years, the number of students in grades 5 through 12 has increased from about 45 students to about 60 students. The increase contributed to a budget deficit of $167,000 for the 2017-18 school year that had to be addressed at this year’s Town Meeting and is driving a deficit of $49,000 in the 2018-19 budget, according to Croydon School Board Chairwoman Jody Underwood.

Like Fellows, Underwood believes the influx of students in grades 5 through 12 is due to more than just normal fluctuations.

SEE CROYDON A9

CROYDON FROM A8

At least some of the new families have moved to town expressly to take advantage of school choice.

“The ones that have spoken to me have told me that,” said Underwood, a proponent of the Croydon bill and a member of the libertarian Free State Project. “Realtors have told me that they can’t keep houses on the market.”

In spite of the initial budgetary impact, all three School Board members contended that the Croydon bill will ultimately have a positive effect not just on the educational outlook for children but on the town itself, leading to increased property values and, in turn, general prosperity. And they said residents have mostly demonstrated a willingness to accommodate the trend. At Town Meeting last month, voters passed a warrant article to cover the 2017-18 deficit as well as passing next year’s budget, which includes a bit of extra padding in case more tuition students come in.

“I was very pleased to have a town that supported our current budget,” said School Board member Thomas Moore. “I’m not sure everyone in the town feels on the same page ... as in every town, there’s some people who think we ought to be putting money into education and there’s other people who feel that our taxes should remain low.”

“I haven’t heard anybody complain about school choice,” Underwood said. “Nobody’s said, ‘why did you do this?’ Absolutely not.”

Fellows, who’s been attending School Board meetings for the past several months, said the changes haven’t been entirely without controversy. “I think there are some frustrations surrounding it,” Fellow said. “Unfortunately, this is a process ... it’s a bit of a learning curve.”

The increase in tuition students is just one of the challenges the school district has had to confront this year. Prior to and during last year’s Town Meeting, school officials and residents wrestled with whether to cut one of three full-time teachers at Croydon Village School, in response to a decrease in enrollment there.

School Board members say the budget cut at the elementary school was unrelated to the increase in students in the upper levels and the subsequent budget deficit. Nevertheless, it led to resentment.

In the wake of the budget cut, the other two full-time teachers — one a teaching principal and the other a classroom teacher and special education teacher — both resigned.

“They were really fed up and knew that this would be a disastrous move,” said Moore, a math teacher at Lebanon High School and father of three children at Croydon Village School. “We had to hire all new people ... who had to try to tackle an impossible job.”

Moore, who was elected to the School Board in 2018, said he decided to get involved because he was unhappy with the cuts, as well as with a proposal to eliminate the school’s full-day kindergarten.

“I did not like the direction the school was heading in,” he said.

Even those who initially supported the cut acknowledged that, while it looked good on paper, it proved problematic in practice, as two teachers tried to cover five grade levels while playing dual roles.

“They were really in pain this year,” Underwood said.

In addition to dealing with staff turnover at the school, the Croydon School District had to replace Superintendent Patricia Lally, who resigned earlier this year. School Board members said her resignation was unrelated to the controversies at the elementary school.

Frank Perotti Jr., a Plainfield resident who has served as superintendent in several Vermont and New Hampshire school districts over the past two decades, took over as superintendent last month. He resigned as superintendent of SAU 32, which oversees the Plainfield School District and provides administrative services for Cornish Elementary School, in February, stating a desire to work fewer hours. Perotti did not return phone calls and an email requesting input on Croydon’s budget last week.

The Croydon School District has also had to replace its business administrator multiple times in the past few years.

School Board members say they’re confident that the district has begun to stabilize and prepare itself for the possibility of additional growth. Next year’s budget includes funding for approximately three new students in grades 5 to 8 and three new students in grades 9 to 12, Underwood said.

The district budgets tuition based on Newport’s tuition fees, which average about $14,000 per student, since the largest number of students attend there. Families who want to send students to area schools with higher tuition rates must pay the difference.

“I don’t picture the growth to get out of control,” Moore said. “At first there’ll be an initial boom. I don’t picture constant growth year after year after year. … I know eventually we’d like to get a fund going in the years to come so that we don’t have to over-budget one line item.”

Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnews.com and 603-727-3268.

Croydon School Board member Jody Underwood, right, speaks to fellow board members at the district's 2017 annual meeting at the Town Hall in Croydon.

VALLEY NEWS — JAMES M. PATTERSON