Passage of SB 539-Donor Towns

[Argie's Wife]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

Property tax payers in Waterville Valley can maybe breath a sigh of relief if the donor town system has really been put to rest.

Waterville Valley has a small elementary school with grades k-8, and spends over $26,000/student/year, and the school has a big banner out front announcing it just won the highest academics/ NH elementary for reading and math in NH or something like that.

With all the non-resident condos and homes, each individual student must have about 50-million dollars of assessed property value on a per student basis, and it could be that the school actually has more teachers and staff than students? Every elementary student gets their own teacher(s), guidance councilor, administrative assistant, driver, and ski/tennis coach.

Rich or poor, students are probably better off in a rich town!

You're missing the one major fact here: there's only about 30-33 students in this school system (it's a K-8 school.) The teacher to student ratio is 1:8 - the State average is 1:12. Their spending is almost $10,000 more per student than the state average. I have to wonder why they don't send the students to a private school, another district, or whathaveyou - I'd think it was cheaper.

Their banner is celebrating their success of high scores on NECAP testings - which determines if the school will make Annual Yearly Progress (AYP). In a school population that small, one student failing the test can bring down the whole school's rating.

What's not stated in your post about that district, is that their 9-12 students are tuition out to Pemi-Baker Cooperative in (Plymouth Regional).

WVSD would receive federal tax money revenue because 9% of their students receive free or reduced lunch. The property tax rate in that town is like $11.38 (2009) - not bad.

And rich or poor.... if you're basing the NECAP test scores on success it really doesn't matter. The way No Child Left Behind is set up in NH (and remember - each state has their own way to measure progress) - all schools will fail to meet the level of Proficient by 2014 because all students (100%) will be expected to be Proficient. The program does not take into account that there are some students that will work their hardest and do their very best - and only be able to achieve a C or a D. The tests are a one-size fit-all type of test and are given ONE day. There's no chance for a re-take, make up test, etc. (SAT's, The Bar Exam, etc. - can all be taken again if someone fails - not the NECAP!) And the NECAP test is a New England based test - there's five other states' standards included on it. NH bought into it to save money because No Child Left Behind is underfunded - to the tune of about $12 billion.