North Attleborough Finance Committee Reviews Rising Regional School Assessments for Fiscal 2023

NORTH ATTLEBORO -- March 3, 2022, North Attleborough Finance Committee receives rising regional school budget assessments for fiscal year 2023. The committee heard back-to-back budget presentations Thursday from Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School, whose business administrator Dan Haynes reported a 2.56 percent overall budget increase totaling $561,145, and from King Philip Regional School District, whose Superintendent Paul Zipini and Director of Finance Larry Azar outlined a 3.97 percent level-service budget increase. Plainville's Tri-County assessment of $147,695 represents roughly a 10 percent increase despite a district enrollment decline to 895 students, while Plainville's King Philip assessment is rising 5.98 percent, the steepest among the three member towns, driven by $750,000 in new special education costs, a 7 percent health insurance premium jump, and minimal Chapter 70 state aid growth of about 1.61 percent. Azar warned that surging charter school enrollment, for which state reimbursement disappears after three years, "is going to blow a crater in the KP budget" if trends continue. The committee voted unanimously to move its own revenue projection discussion to March 10.