no STATION BULLETIN 346 



throughout. Part of the area is more accessible to the District A 

 school, but it is more than two miles distant and would therefore re- 

 quire public transportation should the children be instructed to attend 

 this school. Most of the families in this part of the town, by prefer- 

 ence, send their children to District A at their own expense, even 

 though District B provides a transportation route from near this area 

 to its own schools. These same families requested local officials to 

 consider the feasibility of setting ofif their estates into District A to be 

 assessed and taxed for school purposes. The following statistics sum- 

 marize the actual financial situation of the two districts for the school 

 year 1940-1941 : 



District A District B 



Expenditures $33,381.59 $4,675.22 



Income other than property tax 935.08 391.63 



Balance to property tax $32,446.51 $4,283.59 



Assessed valuation $2,053,549 $381,161 



School tax rate to meet expenditures $1.58 $1.12 



Under the above proposed plan, taxable wealth amounting to 

 $23,300 would be taken from District B and annexed to District A. 

 Inasmuch as these children were already attending the District A 

 school, there would be no appreciable reduction of District B's expen- 

 ditures except the per capita tax ($2.00 per pupil) for state-wide su- 

 pervision. Concerning District A, tax revenue from the additional 

 inventory of this offset property could not possibly compensate for 

 increased expenditures for transportation, the per capita tax, and for 

 the loss of tuition income. In other words, the tax burdens of both 

 districts would have been greater and a few families would have been 

 relieved from paying tuition and from providing their own transporta- 

 tion for both elementary and secondary schools. Had this proposed 

 plan been in effect during the school year 1940-1941, the summary of 

 school finances would have appeared about as follows : 



As a matter of interest, some consideration was devoted to the 

 practicability of District B closing its two one-room schools and trans- 

 porting all its pupils to District A. This would involve a tuition pay- 

 ment of $36 per pupil per year and a transportation expense of ap- 

 proximately $55 per week for 37 weeks. To partially compensate for 

 these increases, many expenses would be eliminated, namely, teachers' 

 salaries, text books and supplies, medical inspection, and all expenses 

 concerned with plant operation and maintenance. Costs of adminis- 



