Otis Approves Amended Regional School Agreement

By Frank Tolopko

April 2025

At an Otis Special Town Meeting, held on March 25th, Otis residents approved the amended regional school agreement by a vote of 117 to 68. This was the final link in a multi-year process to update the 30-plus year-old accord.

The Agreement will take effect in fiscal year 2026, which commences on July 1st.

While most of the changes to the agreement were a simple updating of language referencing an operating school district, rather than one in formation, the issue of current and future financial apportionment of the two member towns was debated, quite civilly, to the very end. Some speakers suggested that it was not too late to engage independent financial/educational consultants to construct an agreement both towns’ selectboards and finance committees could endorse.

Since the relative apportionment percentages are based on annual state-supplied financial data, the relative contributions of each town could vary from year to year. 

Due to a convergence of fortuitous financial data, fiscal year 2026 will not see a huge jump in the Otis real estate tax rate solely due to the agreement. But, with the new agreement in place, the Otis’ Finance Committee will continue to meet and carve out a budget reflecting the changes. More on this in next month’s Observer.