King Philip Regional Budget Proposal Projects $945,000 Assessment Spike for Rentham

NORTH ATTLEBORO -- January 27, 2020, King Philip Regional School Committee hears FY21 budget proposal projecting a 9.55 percent assessment increase for Rentham. Business Manager Larry Azar and Superintendent Paul Zinni presented a level-service operating budget of $35.1 million, a 4.77 percent increase over the current year, at the January 27 public hearing, with the aggregate town assessment rising 5.89 percent. Enrollment and revenue-growth-factor shifts in the state's statutory formula drove a stark disparity: Norfolk faces a $274,000 increase, Plainville $244,000, and Rentham nearly $945,000. A 12 percent health insurance premium placeholder accounts for nearly two percentage points of the budget increase, though Azar noted the district has negotiated final rates of roughly 3 percent and 2.5 percent in each of the past two years. Azar identified $843,000 in unfunded program needs held outside the level-service budget, and stressed that King Philip remains the lowest per-pupil spender among Massachusetts districts with only a middle school and high school, a figure that would be $5.8 million higher if the district spent at the pace of its structural peers. The committee is scheduled to vote on the budget in March.