Gelsey, Day Win, Elementary Project Fails, Budget Passes

Incumbents Giana Gelsey and Denise Day were reelected to the Oyster River School Board, with 33.2% and 24.7% of the vote respectively in this five way race.  Congratulations Giana and Denise.

Newcomer Colin Blake-Butler came in third with 20.4% of the vote. That's a very good showing in this tough field; I expect if he perseveres, Blake-Butler will be elected to the board in the next couple of years.

The $62.4M budget passed with 63.1% of the vote; the last time support was lower was 2015.

The $10M Expansion/Renovation of the Elementary School failed with 49.3% of the vote; 60% was required for passage.

Turnout was at least 3021 voters, relatively high for the district.

Al Howland was elected Moderator, congratulations Al.

The board-recommend warrant articles for ORPaSS, ORESPA, Facilities Fund, Special Education Fund, and a $0 appropriation for Open Enrollment all passed.

The Citizen petitions all failed, despite YES circled on the report below.  It also says the Tax Cap article required 60% to pass per RSA 32:5-c1, which was not mentioned on the ballot.

For the first time, the district reported the result by town.  Lee voters, who are paying local ed taxes at an apparent rate much higher than the other towns, were notably grumpy, favoring Blake-Butler over Day and with majorities voting NO on the Facilities/Solar Array, and YES on the citizen petitions for a statutory budget committee, ending retention of fund balance, a tax cap and performance audit.

-----------------

I tried looked into if and why taxes are hitting so much harder in Lee, but didn't figure it totally out. Looking at the current year (FY26), we have Durham : Lee : Madbury equalized real-estate valuation 57.8% : 29.1% : 13.1% and student counts 46.4% : 36.8% : 16.8%. We see that Lee has 37% of the students in the district but they are supported by only 29% of the real estate; similarly Madbury has 17% of the students supported by 13% of the real estate.  The coop agreement splits half the bill in proportional to valuation and half in proportion to number of students, so Madbury and Lee pay at a higher rate than Durham.  In the past, the state adequacy aid went a long way to bringing taxes back to where they'd be if the district were one large town (so split proportional to property values alone).  

If, for the current year we divide the percentage of the bill (before state aid) by the percentage of the real estate, we get Durham: 52.1/57.8=90.1%, Lee 33.0/29.1=113%, Madbury 14.9/13.1=113.7%. If we do a similar calculation after state aid is applied, we get Durham (23.4/43.2)/.578=93.7%, Lee (13.6/43.2)/.291=108.2%, Madbury (6.2/43.2)/13.1=109.6%.  So we conclude this year, Lee and Madbury folks were paying a rate about 15% higher that Durham folks. 

That assumes the equalization ratios are correct.  The equalization ratio for a town is the number used to equalize real estate valuations across town.  It is basically the ratio of assessed value to market value in the town; below 100 indicates the assessments are below market value.  If you're just splitting up taxes within a town, this doesn't matter, but it matters a great deal in Cooperative School Districts, because it's the equalized valuation of the town (assessed value divided by equalization ratio) that's used in the Coop apportionment calculation.

I had thought the equalization ratios of the three towns were about the same, making the millages comparable, but the latest report (2024) has Durham 77.6, Lee 72.6, Madbury 64.1, or relative to Durham, Lee 72.6/77.6=93.6%, Madbury 64.1/77.6=82.6%. 

To convert a millage that is applied to your assessed value to an 'equalized millage' across towns, we multiply it by the equalization ratio. That gives what the millage would be if the assessed value equaled the imputed market value. We can calculate 'equalized millages' as Durham .776*(.92+10.79)=9.09, Lee .726*(.85+18.29)=13.90, Madbury .641*(.91+11.77)=8.13, so now it appears in the new budget that Madbury is getting a bargain, 11% less than Durham, and Lee pays at a rate 53% over Durham.  That swing in Madbury doesn't make much sense to me, but I'm out of time for this, uncle!

I could not find the numbers the district uses to estimate the millages for FY27, what we just voted on.

Please enjoy this spreadsheet history of the district, covering the time I've been paying attention, followed by detailed election results.  I typed those in; corrections welcome.