October 24, 2006

Committee Members:

I. Introduction

For the second year in a row the voters of the annual Barnstead School District Meeting established a committee to study the merit of the current SAU #51, which serves both the communities of Barnstead and Pittsfield. The committee’s charge was to finish the work started in the 2005-2006 school year and to provide a final report and recommendation at the March 2007 School District Meeting. This year the committee has taken extensive advantage of the work recently completed by several other districts that studied this same issue and used their reports as a framework to ensure our study was comprehensive. The following is the result of the committee’s work.

II. The Barnstead School District

The Barnstead School District is currently partnered in a dual community School District (SAU #51) where services are shared between the Barnstead and Pittsfield communities. SAU #51 provides Superintendent Services for the Barnstead Elementary School (K-8, ~545 students) and the Pittsfield Elementary School (K-6, ~395 students) and the Pittsfield Middle/High School (7-12, ~329 students).

Barnstead High School students (9-12) now attend Prospect Mountain High School in Alton, NH as part of the Joint Maintenance agreement existing between those towns. Superintendent services for Prospect Mountain High School are budgeted and provided independently of SAU #51. Prior to the completion of Prospect Mountain High School, SAU #51 provided high school placement services for the grade 9-12 students of Barnstead.

The collective five member school boards of the Barnstead and Pittsfield communities govern and establish the budget and operating structure of SAU #51. The cost of operations are shared between the districts as determined by New Hampshire statutes, and become a line in each local districts operating budget.

The Community

The town of Barnstead is located in Belknap County in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire. The town was incorporated in 1727 and has grown 396 %* across the last few decades. (See Table 1).

III. General Demographic Characteristics of the Barnstead School District

The State of New Hampshire has grown significantly over the past 40 years, with the state growing an average of 14,000 people per year. This trend is expected to continue with the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning (OEP) forecasting growth of 9% (145,020) from 2005-2015 for the State, 9% (6910) for Belknap County, and 7.1% (670) for the Town of Barnstead. While this growth has been high, it has not been uniform for all NH communities. Clearly, communities in the south central and southeast counties have seen significantly higher growth with some northern and western counties experiencing a decline. Barnstead’s overall growth in the 90’s was 13.9%, while Belknap County was 7.2% and the State overall was 8.3%. However, OEP forecasts for Barnstead over the next 10 years (2005-2015), is projected at around 670, or 7.1%. The growth from 2000 to 2005 has been an estimated 15.9% for Barnstead

Table 1 Enrollment as a percent of population

*All OEP data as of September 2006

The annual number of births has remained consistent in the 1990’s, which range from 38-60, producing a range of 0.9 to 1.9% for the number of births to the total population. Table 2 shows the number of births as a % of the total population. It will be important to monitor this in the future for any significant changes in pattern. This statistic is significant given the continued uncertainty that surrounds the impact that new residents will have on the future growth of the school district.

Table 2      Births as a % of population

*All OEP data as of September 2006

Another measure of growth within the Barnstead School District is the record of building permits issued.  The following table depicts the number of permits issued.  The annual net change recently has been regulated by the temporary moratorium in the Town of Barnstead set at a 2.5% growth limit per year, which is set to expire in 2009 unless renewed by the Town prior to 2009.  The committee assumes that once the moratorium is lifted, the number of permits issued will begin to increase, bringing with it more school age children.

 SHAPE  \* MERGEFORMAT  

Table 3  Building Permits Issued

The following table shows the relationship between births in the Town and Kindergarten enrollments 5 years later and 1st grade enrollments 6 years later. Of interest in the table is that there is an average of 15% greater enrollment in Kindergarten than there were births in the appropriate corresponding year. Additionally, another 5% of growth is seen between Kindergarten and Grade 1. It is unknown how the current building permit moratorium will affect these averages in future years.

Table 4 Impact of Move-ins on Class Size

Birth Year	Births	School Year	K	School Year	Gr1
1995	43	2000	49	2001	52
1996	48	2001	60	2002	79
1997	45	2002	65	2003	59
1998	43	2003	39	2004	44
1999	52	2004	60	2005	62
2000	60	2005	60	2006	67
2001	38	2006	48	2007

Summary

It can be concluded from the data that the district can expect to experience a constant rate of growth considering these variables. It is apparent that growth across K-8 remains consistently 12-15% of the Town’s total population regardless of other potentially influencing factors. If this statistic continues in this trend this could prove to be a valuable tool in measuring future anticipated enrollment.

IV Barnstead and SAU #51 – Current Organizational Structure

The Barnstead School District is currently part of School Administrative Unit (SAU) #51, which provides administrative services for 2 School Districts: Barnstead and Pittsfield. The SAU board is comprised of 5 board members from Barnstead and 5 board members from Pittsfield.

The central office, located in Pittsfield, is on the first floor of a leased building. All SAU staff is located in this office. The SAU’s current staffing consists of the following

Full- and part-time positions:

Superintendent of Schools - Full Time

Business Administrator - Full Time

Full Time Bookkeeper - Full Time

Payroll Assistant - Part Time

Administrative Assistant - Part Time

The current SAU Budget for the 2006-2007 school year is $412,613.00 of which Barnstead’s portion is $219,593.00 (53.22%) with Pittsfield’s portion totaling at $193,020.00. (46.78%)

This is determined by the following RSA:

194-C: 9 Budget –
I. At a meeting held before January 1, the school administrative unit board shall adopt a budget required for the expenses of the school administrative unit for the next fiscal year, which budget may include the salary and expenses of supervisors of health, physical education, music, art, and guidance, and any other employees, and shall include the expenses necessary for the operation of the school administrative unit. Superintendents, assistant superintendents, business administrators, teacher consultants, and the regularly employed office personnel of the school administrative unit office shall be deemed employees of the school administrative unit for the purposes of payment of salaries and contributions to the employee's retirement system of the state of New Hampshire and workers' compensation. The school administrative unit board shall apportion the total amount of the budget among the constituent school districts in the following manner: the apportionment shall be based 1/2 on the average membership in attendance for the previous school year and 1/2 on the most recently available equalized valuation of each district as of June 30 of the preceding school year. Prior to January 15 in each year, the board shall certify to the chairperson of the school board of each constituent school district the amount so apportioned. Each district within a school administrative unit shall raise at the next annual district meeting the sum of money apportioned to it by the school administrative unit board for the expenses of services which each district received in connection with the school administrative unit office. The school administrative unit board in adopting the budget shall not add any new service to the school administrative unit budget unless a majority of the school districts in the school administrative unit representing not less than 60 percent of the total pupils in the school administrative unit have voted favorably upon the establishment of the service. A vote to accept a new service shall not be construed as a vote to raise and appropriate money within the meaning of RSA 197:3.
II. The provisions of paragraph I shall not apply to school administrative units comprising only one district. The budget for these units shall be a part of the school district budget and subject to the vote of the annual school district meeting or, for those districts without an annual meeting, by the legislative body.

V Design of Barnstead as an Independent SAU

Several models of SAU design were considered when evaluating the current SAU structure and looking at other opportunities. Several other communities were investigated to see if they were interested in partnering with the Pittsfield and Barnstead districts together or Barnstead alone. In all cases the committee found that both independent and currently partnered districts were not looking to change their current status. As a result, what is presented below is an independent SAU design representing the interest of the Barnstead District.

The model consists of a part-time Superintendent who would on average work 3 days a week. The committee experimented with variations in scheduling, skewing more work days to the school year and less across the summer months. It was decided if endorsed; the school board would determine an optimal model for effectiveness and efficiency.

Estimated Costs of Operating an Independent SAU

The following is a table of estimated annual operating costs for an independent SAU based on the previous organizational chart. It factors in the setup costs of establishing an SAU to include the purchase or lease of computers, software, and furniture acquisition. The committee utilized current SAU #51 operating budgets, other SAU budgets that serve schools similar to Barnstead, and comparative SAU Study reports as a basis for the budget estimate.

In summary, the annual cost of operating an independent SAU is approximately $72,000 greater than the current model where costs are shared with the Pittsfield District. This likelihood was indicated to the taxpayers of Barnstead at the March 2006 School District Meeting where they voted their support to continue the SAU Planning Committee

VI Comparison to Other SAU’s and School Districts

SAU Comparison

There are 221 towns and cities in New Hampshire, which are organized into 176 school districts – 14 of which do not operate schools. In 2003-2004 there were 235,230 students statewide attending grades K -12, with 207,417 being served by 176 public school districts.

The school districts are structured as:

• · Single district (131)
• · Cooperative district (31)
• · Not operating a school (14)

In addition, an individual school district may be related to other districts through tuition contracts, AREA agreements, or other arrangements.

The 176 public school districts are further organized under state law into 80 School Administrative Units (SAU’s), each with its own superintendent of schools. The SAU’s are structured as:

• · Single district (45)
• · Two district (11)
• · Multi district (24)

In the 2003-2004 school year, SAU student enrollments ranged from 159 to 17,737, with an average of 2,500 students.

SAU #51 is a two-district entity serving approximately 1350 students. Of the 1350, approximately 600 are Barnstead students. In addition, Barnstead has approximately 230 students attending Prospect Mountain High School (PMtHS) through a Joint Maintenance Agreement (JMA) agreement with Alton, NH. PMtHS is operated by the JMA Board, equally comprised of Alton and Barnstead members, as well as a separate Superintendent.

Should the Barnstead School District withdraw from SAU #51 and form a single-district SAU, it would be following the course taken by a majority of the districts in New Hampshire. An independent Barnstead SAU would only provide services to their K-8 students, while the grade 9-12 students would continue to be served by the Prospect Mountain JMA.

In July, 2006, the number of multi-district SAUs decreased and the number of single-district SAU’s increased due to the reorganization of SAU #14 - comprised of Chester, Epping, and Fremont - into single-district SAUs. The newly single-district SAUs of Fremont and Chester share similarities with the Barnstead School District. Both have grade Pre/K – 8 schools, and both have a student population of approximately 500 and 700, respectively.

Chester budgeted $239,101 for the operation of their SAU which employs a full-time superintendent, a business administrator, and an administrative staff. Fremont budgeted $202,000 for the operation of their SAU which employs a part-time superintendent (20 hrs/wk), full-time financial administrator, and a part-time administrative assistant (10 hrs/wk).

It can be concluded our estimated costs to operate an independent SAU are in line with what has been budgeted and planned by other SAU’s that have recently separated.

VII (a) Impact on Current SAU #51

The total 2006-2007 budget of SAU 51 is $412,613.00. If separation were to occur, SAU 51 would lose about $219,500 in revenue. The Barnstead School District would release most, if not all, of any jointly owned hardware, furniture and fixtures for a minimal fee, if any. It would appear to this committee that some type of reorganization of structure would be necessary; however, this would be at the sole discretion of the remaining district. Due to the unknowns of the potential reorganization, further impacts cannot be speculated.

VII (b) Findings, Observations and Alternatives

Based on a careful consideration of the preceding information the following findings and/or observations are offered:

VII Closing Comments

Recent history has shown that single district SAU’s are gaining popularity across the State of New Hampshire. We have seen that districts both smaller and larger than Barnstead are breaking away from their joint SAU’s and forming independent organizations hoping to realize benefits specific to their community and children. The data collected by the Barnstead SAU Planning Committee in this report represents two years of study and careful consideration. It clearly indicates that the population in the Town is increasing, which will translate into rapid growth in the district population; and given the data presented, will result in our percentage of costs in the joint district operation of SAU #51 to continue to increase.

Control and costs can be more directly regulated by the local district when applying the single district model. And though the committee has estimated the cost of operating a single district SAU may increase by $72,000; we believe this is an acceptable increase that brings a benefit to the school district and the community as we meet the increasing educational needs of our children. Based upon the facts presented in this report, the Barnstead SAU Withdrawal Committee recommends withdrawal from SAU #51 and the formation of a single district SAU. The committee also recommends upon approval from the New Hampshire State Board of Education and the voters of Barnstead, that the formation of the single district SAU commence on July 1, 2008.

Respectfully submitted:

Keith Couch, School Board Chair Diane Beijer, School Board Vice-Chair
Will Bartels, Budget Committee Member April Ellis, Parent & Community Member
David Kerr, Community Member Ellie Boyd, Community Member