FALLS VILLAGE—The Region 1 Board of Education will present its proposed 2024-25 budget at a public hearing tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Housatonic Valley Regional High School and on zoom. The $17,690,331 budget shows an increase in spending of $658,003, or 3.86 percent.
The school, which serves Kent, Canaan, Falls Village, Sharon, Salisbury and Cornwall, is located on Warren Turnpike in Falls Village.
The budget will be taken to referendum May 7 from noon to 8 p.m., with voting in each of the six towns in the district.
The spending plan has several component parts: the high school, district-wide Pupil Services, and the Regional School Services Center, which provides administrative services throughout the district.
If approved, net spending for the high school, after $958,300 in revenues are factored in, would increase $357,173, or 4.14 percent, to $8,988,991. Pupil Services, which provides special education, accounts for almost half the budget and would increase $250,066 or 3.7 percent to a net $6,983,430. The adjusted RSSC budget is $1,717,910, an increase of $50,763 or 3.04 percent.
The towns are assessed for these costs based on their student populations as compared to other district communities. Kent, with 37 students at the high school, would bear 12.8 percent of the cost of the facility, paying $1.4 million. Canaan, which sends 102 students, would pick up the biggest burden with an assessment of $3.8 million, while Salisbury, with 63 students, would pay nearly $2.4 million.
A similar pattern is shown for assessments for Pupil Services. Kent, with 162 students in Region 1 schools, would again pay 12.8 percent of the cost, or $898,583. Canaan, with 246 students, would shoulder 19.5 percent, or $1.3 million, while Salisbury, with 295 students, would pay 23.4 percent, or $1.6 million.
Kent would again pay 12.8 percent of the RSSC budget, or $224,362. The sending towns with the largest student populations, Canaan and Salisbury, would pay $323,397 and $381,168 respectively.
