March 28, 2024

Game, Set & Match

D-R School Committee Increases Rehoboth Assessment by $60,000

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The Dighton-Rehoboth school committee voted Monday to reset the 2020 district assessments for the two towns. As a result, Rehoboth will be paying an additional $60,000 while Dighton will see its assessment reduced by the same amount.

A statement issued Tuesday by school committee chairperson Katherine Cooper noted: “The Dighton Rehoboth Regional School District has been unable to obtain a voted budget in the Town of Rehoboth. During the delay in voting a budget, the state changed the Minimum Local Contribution amounts required by each town. The School Committee has recalculated each member town's assessment in light of this change in required local minimum contributions. The motion the School Committee passed on September 30, 2019 is as follows: "to modify the vote taken September 24, 2019 for the FY 20 budget assessments, to change the town of Rehoboth's assessment from $19,301,264 to $19,361,791, and to change the town of Dighton's assessment from $10,603,307 to $10,542,780 due to the Massachusetts Senate Conference Committee determination regarding the Minimum Local Contributions, which the district received in September 2019.”

Selectmen chairman Gerry Schwall said the town had not received any communication from the school committee or the administration about the change in assessments. Schwall explained the town could not offer a response until an assessment from the district treasurer was presented for review.

In a compromise agreement with the board of selectmen, the school committee agreed to make $204,000 in reductions to their 2020 budget. As a result, the FY19 to FY20 budget increase is now $373,000 which is a 0.86% budget increase, rather than 1.32%. The total budget is now $45, 096, 223 for the Dighton Rehoboth School District.

Budget cuts will need to be made at the town level in order to compensate for an additional $330,000 in funding for the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District.

Voters will be asked to approve the reductions at the fall town meeting scheduled for October 29.

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  • ChrisHoskins

    Mr. Siegel, I again want to point out that your continued ramblings on this subject have turned into antagonizing forces towards an imaginary feud. I urge you to rethink how you title your pieces, as well. You, and transitively the Reporter, are treating this as a game by tilting your pieces with phrases like "Dighton vs. Rehoboth." I am quite disappointed by the tone of antagonistic pieces being published in the only free local newspaper we have in Rehoboth, especially when some don't appear under the 'opinion' section.

    Monday, October 7, 2019 Report this

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