Norton will pay $56,538 less than last year to educate students at the Southeastern Regional Technical High School, a total of $1,098,468 for the 2011/12 school year.
District Superintendent Louis Lopes visited selectmen Thursday in his annual trek through the district of eight towns and one city to report on the preliminary budget and the individual assessments of each community.
Norton has had 137 students at Southeastern this year - one of the largest contingents except for Brockton, topping the list at 813. Sharon sends the fewest, at 16 this year.
Lopes said although the district had worked hard to keep the student teacher ratio constant and to hold onto positions, doling out a slim 1.9 percent increase in salaries overall, insurance costs keep rising, and will be between 10 percent and 12 percent higher in the coming year.
The base tuition for a Southeastern student is $14,737. Southeastern's total budget for the upcoming year is estimated at $21,394,145, a 4.68 increase over FY 2011.
Lopes said the district held some of last year's stimulus money back, using it to offset costs of technology and equipment. "We knew it was going to be a difficult year," he said.
Although transportation costs have risen significantly due to increases in fuel and insurance, the district used tuition from adult education classes to help reduce those assessments to communities. The state had reimbursed regional districts 100 percent for transportation in the past, but had reduced that number as the economy took a hit.
Lopes also gave a thumbnail sketch of the upcoming $30 million school building improvement plan that will start in November of 2011 and run through the following summer. The comparison with the upcoming Norton High School building project reveals many of the same features in both.
Chairman Robert Kimball said both projects will focus on bringing the buildings up to standard educational codes - creating new labs and gym space, re-roofing, fire prevention, and installing energy saving measures. But when he heard Lopes say the state has promised 80 percent reimbursement to the Southeastern renovation, he said, "With our high school project, we'll be thrilled if we get 60 percent."
Lopes said the plan is to use the old gym as "swing space" during construction, and also predicted the high school will have classes during February and April vacation weeks so the students can be dismissed earlier in the year, by June 4.
"That way there will be more summer construction time," he said.
He told the board the town will not be expected to have a special town meeting to endorse the plan, because no action will be interpreted as a positive vote.
The renovation will not cost the member communities more in assessments, Lopes said, because of the high state reimbursement and dedication of capital money and adult education tuition to the project.