Board of Aldermen Page 10
May 10, 2016
O-16-011
Endorsers: Alderman Don LeBrun
Alderman Ken Siegel
Alderman David Schoneman
Alderman Tom Lopez
ADOPTING PROVISIONS FOR REDUCED TAXATION FOR CERTAIN CHARTERED
PUBLIC SCHOOL FACILITIES
Given its second reading;
MOTION BY ALDERMAN LEBRUN FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF O-16-011
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Schoneman
| supported this before and | will support it here too. | think that even though, there was a point made during
public comment about where the money comes from, | think that it’s clear that the charter schools operate at
about half of the income per pupil than the public schools do no matter what the source is. | think that they
provide a service to those students and the taxpayers. | also think that as a publicly funded educational
institution, they should have the same kind of treatment that others are and that is not paying property taxes.
Our public schools do not pay property tax. Charter schools do pay property tax and | think that giving them
the benefit of a discount under property tax would go directly towards the benefit of education for those
students and for the taxpayers.
Alderman Lopez
It sounds like there are not equivalent funding sources so | am not entirely convinced that it is exactly halfway
split, although personally | am in favor of the way we have school choice in Nashua because we don’t have a
lot of charter schools. We focus on our public schools and make sure that quality education is accessible to
everyone but | am concerned at how the revenue...Alderman McCarthy brought up that the revenue couldn't
necessarily be guaranteed to go to the schools; the landlord could potentially make a different deal. Alderman
Siegel pointed out that most of the charter schools do have a separate arrangement in their lease so that they
pay their taxes for the landlords. If that’s the case then the revenue saved by this for the schools would go
straight to the schools. | am concerned that it’s not so easy for a charter school to negotiate after they have
invested physically properties in the school and making sure that it’s renovated to meet specifications of the
education department. My concern is basically that we could be removing tax revenue from the City of Nashua
and we know the next few years are going to be challenging fiscally. | think if we remove revenue then we are
just putting ourselves into another series of difficult decisions moving forward.
Alderwoman Melizzi-Golja
| am all for parents given a choice and when my child was in school we exercised our opportunity to have
choice and go beyond the public schools but there are two things; Representative Gorman talked about how
the amount of money that is coming back to the Nashua City schools is less than what those to charter schools
and when we heard from the Mayor this evening about the Department of Education’s budget, it’s $400,000
less than what they requested and it’s also funded at a level to just allow them to provide their current level of
service. That current level of service includes, at that time it was over $80,000 of transportation costs for
Nashua students to attend charter schools located in the city. The other service that is included in the school
district's budget that is provided to students who reside in the city but are enrolled in charter schools is special
education services. That service is different than the way we do the rest of the special education services in
the city. If you are a charter school student and your parent chooses to place you in a charter school in
Concord, the Nashua City School District is responsible for arranging for you to have your services. Our
special education budget is also providing services to students enrolled in charter schools and my
understanding is that the number of students who are being provided services has increased to a level that the
