Since the election, external (State of RI) and internal (School Committee) decisions have added at least $43mm in local tax burden to South Kingstown.  The bulk of that has come from reactionary votes made by the School Committee.  With another emergency building committee requested Tuesday, advertised on the Friday of a long weekend, we are... Continue Reading →

I appreciate all of the responses to my first blog post, it allowed for me to do some additional thinking on our district’s configuration.  It looks like South Road is not going to be available, as it will still be in use by Meadowbrook.  Other comments were that DLI families would like to see it... Continue Reading →

School Configuration 2019/2020 There have been a lot of discussions about the Facility Plan and the 2019/2020 budget.  These topics are separate but they are also intertwined.  The School Committee has voted and they are moving forward with the Stage II application, so this blog post is moving forward that we will have 4 elementary... Continue Reading →

In my last blog entry on the facility process, I presented a financial analysis regarding Option D, which could have funded much more facility construction than is currently being considered. The feedback I received from people shocked by the numbers suggests that perhaps operational savings are not well understood. In what follows let me explain... Continue Reading →

Included below is analysis from a community member on another forum looking ahead to this year’s school budget.  A number of discussions at the microphone, along with analyses on these pages have repeatedly demonstrated how important it is to think long-term for sustained fiscal health within South Kingstown schools.  When a minor hiccup could cause... Continue Reading →

Hello-Thank you all for all the time you have dedicated to our schools.  I may not agree with your decisions but certainly recognize how much time and effort you dedicate to our schools.My name is Karen McGlynn, I am a homeowner, tax payer and currently have three students in the South Kingstown school system; a... Continue Reading →

*** This article has been updated based on more recent understanding of staid aid. Note that this was written in January, 2019, before our original stage 2 was submitted, before it was rejected, and before we investigated the feasibility of a new HS the first time last spring. As you know we are now embarking... Continue Reading →

Last week I wrote about the constraints that Massachusetts placed on its school districts nearly 40 years ago.  Under the same constraints, South Kingstown spending (since the year 2000) would have trended very differently. Each year, SKSD is spending $10mm to $12mm more than if normal inflation been applied over the last 20 years.  For... Continue Reading →

Last night, the School Committee was presented with the latest iteration of the facility plan. The building committee met earlier in the day to finish the updated proposal of $86mm. They subsequently removed several of the HVAC options to bring the new price tag down to $75mm. NEA president Brian Nelson advocated to add back... Continue Reading →

In 1980, the State of Massachusetts recognized the limitations and threats of relying too heavily on expanding property taxes to fund our public education systems.  Proposition 2 ½ was passed to limit the increases a town could levy through its property taxes each year. Named for the enacted cap of 2.5%, any town that needed to... Continue Reading →