If you do one thing, search/google 603 CMR 41.00 and then read 41.05 and learn about regional school budgeting. It provides information to aid in what you vote for and how you vote.

41.05: Regional School District Budgets

(1) Initial Adoption by the School Committee.

(a) The regional school committee shall propose a budget containing all proposed operating expenditures, transportation expenditures, capital expenditures, and debt service payments to be paid from general revenues of the regional school district. The budget shall be classified into such line-items as the regional school committee shall determine, provided that such line-items shall be consistent with but need not be to the same level of detail as the chart of accounts required for the end of year reporting of expenditures pursuant to 603 CMR 10.03(3).

Initial Action by the Local Appropriating Authorities.

(a) The budget as adopted by the regional school committee and the member's assessment as certified by the treasurer of the regional school district shall be placed before each member's local appropriating authority for its consideration. Notwithstanding provisions in the regional agreement to the contrary, approval of the budget shall require an affirmative vote of the local appropriating authorities of two-thirds of the members. A vote by the local appropriating authority to appropriate the member's assessment shall constitute approval of the regional school district's budget.

If a local appropriating authority votes to appropriate a lower amount than the assessment as certified by the treasurer of the regional school district, such vote shall not constitute approval of the budget as submitted by the regional school committee. The regional school committee may consider such votes when it reconsiders the budget pursuant to 603 CMR 41.05(3).

Reconsideration of Rejected Budgets.

(a) If the budget is not approved in accordance with 603 CMR 41.05(2), the regional school committee shall have 30 days from the date of disapproval to reconsider, amend, and adopt a revised budget. With the approval of the Commissioner, this 30-day period may be extended an additional 15 days. Where the local appropriating authority is town meeting and the annual town meeting is dissolved prior to voting on the budget, the budget shall be deemed disapproved by that member as of the date of such dissolution.

(b) The revised budget adopted by the regional school committee and the assessments corresponding to such budget may be less than, equal to, or greater than the amounts in the previously adopted budget.

In a regional school district comprised of two members, if the revised budget is not approved by the local appropriating authorities of both members, the regional school committee shall again reconsider, amend, and adopt a revised budget and shall convene a district-wide meeting in accordance with M.G.L. c. 71, § 16B, at which the revised budget shall be placed before all voters eligible to vote at said meeting. If a majority of voters at this district-wide meeting votes to approve the revised budget, such vote shall constitute approval. If a majority of voters at this district-wide meeting votes to approve a greater or lesser amount for the budget, such amount shall be placed before the regional school committee. If the regional school committee by a two-thirds vote of the full committee ratifies such amount, it shall constitute approval. If the regional school committee rejects such amount, it shall again reconsider, amend, and adopt a revised budget and shall reconvene a district-wide meeting pursuant to the provisions of this section 603 CMR 41.05(3)(f).

Establishment of Budgets by the Commissioner.

(a) If the annual budget for a regional school district has not been approved by July 1, the superintendent of schools shall notify the Commissioner, and the Commissioner shall establish an interim monthly budget for the regional school district. The interim monthly budget shall be one-twelfth of the regional school district's budget for the prior fiscal year or such higher amount as the Commissioner may determine. The interim monthly budget shall remain in effect until a budget is approved pursuant to 603 CMR 41.05(3) or December 1, whichever comes earlier.

 

 

 https://www.templetonma.gov/1625/Proposition-25-Override-Information

 Templeton Override votes this century, beginning 2000.

March 23, 2000, special Town election.

Shall the Town of Templeton be allowed to assess an additional $565,164.00 in real estate and personal property taxes for the purpose of funding the Narragansett Regional School District operating budget for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1st, 2000?

Passed YES 10122 votes / NO 709 votes

June 11, 2007, special Town election.

. Shall the Town of Templeton be allowed to assess an additional $735,700.00 in real estate and personal property taxes for the purpose of funding the operating budget of the Narragansett Regional School District as assessed by the Narragansett Regional School District for the fiscal year beginning July first, two thousand seven?

PASSED - YES 541 NO 515

October 15, 2013, special Town election.

“Shall the Town of Templeton be allowed to assess an additional $620,000.00 in real estate and personal property taxes for the purpose of funding the general operations of the regional schools and municipal government for the fiscal year beginning July first, two thousand and thirteen?

PASSED YES 961 NO 746

October 2013 special town meeting.

To appropriate monies from the above override vote.

To see if the town will vote to assess an additional $620,000 in real estate and personal property taxes for the purposes of funding the regional schools and municipal government for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2013. Submitted by the Board of Selectmen. On a motion duly made and seconded the town voted to that Five Hundred Fifty Thousand Four Hundred and Fifty Nine Dollars ($550,459.00) be raised and appropriated from the 2014 Tax levy and other general revenues of the town (as per the passage of the October 15 ballot question for an override of the limitations of the Proposition Two and One half, so called , ch.54, sc. 29) to be added to the appropriation voted pursuant to Article 27 of the Annual Town Meeting to pay the Town of Templeton’s share of the Narragansett Regional School District budget for Fiscal Year 2014, thus increasing the total FY14 appropriation from $4,430,615.00 to a new total of $4,981,074.00 dollars and that Sixty Nine Thousand, Five Hundred Forty One Dollars, ($69,541.00) be raised and appropriated from the 2014 Tax Levy and other general revenues of the town (as per passage of the October 15 ballot question for an override of the limitations of Proposition Two and One half, so called, ch.54, sc. 29) to be added to the appropriation voted pursuant to Article 9 of the Annual Town Meeting for town charges,

Passed.

May 2018, annual Town elections.

Town general fund override $420,246.00

PASSED yes 722 NO 434

May 2018 annual Town meeting

I move to raise and appropriate the sum of Four Hundred Seventy Thousand Two Hundred Forty Six Dollars and No Cents, ($470,246.00), , for supplemental appropriations to the FY 2019 Operating Budget for the following departments: Fire/EMS $290,740 Police $23,000 Insurance & Benefits $133,890 Highway $15,000 Snow & Ice $7,616.

PASSED.

In case you are not aware or have forgotten, back in February 2020, Narragansett Regional School District, (NRSD) contacted Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) concerning member Town Phillipston notification to the school district on amending the regional school district agreement. DESE stated they could not support any amendment in isolation, as the current agreement was out of compliance in key areas. October 21, 2020, NRSD school committee voted to form a Regional Agreement Amendment Committee. December 7, 2020, 1st meeting of the newly formed RAAC and a process was started to look at the regional school agreement between member Towns Templeton and Phillipston and NRSD, which was to see what changes needed to be made, to be current with state laws and things member towns might like to see in the agreement. March 1, 2023, NRSD school committee reviewed draft regional agreement developed by RAAC on April 18, 2022, with some mandatory changes submitted by DESE. (made language changes in August 2022 and October 2022) Shortly thereafter, the NRSD school committee voted to disband the RAAC. Templeton selectmen did their part and put it to a vote of the people, Town Meeting, on May 10, 2023. Phillipston, the other member town of the NRSD, have so far failed to do their part, put it to the people for a vote, Town Meeting, it is required of the agreement and of state law. How do we have a school assessment when we may not have an agreement that is valid in place? If we go with the 1977 agreement, that covers grades K-12, not grades preK - 12. NRSD is budgeting FY27 PreK - 12. which would line up with a 2004 regional agreement, which is flawed as it never went thru the entire process, it was never forwarded to Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, (DESE).

May 10, 2023 - Templeton annual Town Meeting.

ARTICLE 29: AMENDING THE NARRAGANSETT REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

AGREEMENT

To see if the Town will approve the amendments to the Narragansett Regional School District

Agreement as recommended and approved by the Regional School District Committee,

Or take any other action related thereto.

Submitted by the Select Board on behalf of the Narragansett Regional School District

School Committee

Majority Vote Required

Advisory Committee Comments & Recommendation:

The Committee is split on their recommendation vote on Article 29, with a vote of 2-2.

On an amended motion that was duly made and seconded the Town voted to approve the

amendments to the Narragansett Regional School District Agreement as recommended and approved by the Regional School District Committee with it to be amended further to revise the Agreement by striking Section VI(G)(2) as proposed and replacing it to read: (2) All capital costs in town-owned buildings used by the District shall be apportioned among the member towns on the basis of their respective student enrollments in the PK-12 District.

Passed/May 10th @ 8:30pm

 Anyone who has ever had a puppy, should understand this, When you first bring one home, you have to pay attention to them and show them the ways of the home. To sit, where to go and not to go, what to leave alone, how to act (socialize) and most importantly, potty train, so they get to understand when it is time to do some business, they let you know and they go to the door, and many other things in their young formative years. So, could it be that much different with a young child. Watching my nephew with his little girl, getting her to walk, eating, talking (eventually) what is okay and what is not and all those things needed to function later, such as in school. So, when the youngsters get to school in the early years, first, second and third grade, from my old memory, that is where I learned letters, how to use them to make words, sentences and then read them and then basic math, all the things I would need later on, once I understood the basics, I could do stuff on my own (with a little, shall I say assistance from dad) so thinking along those lines, why would first grade teachers be the first thing you cut when trying to make budget dollars work? Why not look to later grades such as grades 11 or 12 teacher (s) why not cut vice principals before first grade teachers? My instinct tells me you cut the stuff for the little ones to play the ole tear drop, heart breaker routine to get what you want, that is to keep the whole pie, without sharing. See, that is my opinion and if you agree, fine, if you do not, that is okay too. I have my list and you can have yours.