District overview
Unity School District
Funding structure, how it compares to peers, and where major projects stand.
A one-school district paying off a $603,000 deficit while starting its own SAU
Unity School District runs one school, Unity Elementary (pre-K through grade 8, about 104-108 students), and pays tuition for about 44-48 high school students at Newport, Fall Mountain, Claremont, Sunapee and other schools. Voters set the budget at the annual district meeting each March. For years it shared SAU 6 with Claremont. In 2025 the acting SAU business administrator found that past financial reports had been wrong, leaving a cumulative deficit of about $603,000. Unity voted to leave SAU 6 and formed SAU 109 on July 1, 2026.
Deficit
About $603,516 at the start of 2025-26. Voters approved up to $150,000, and the board drew down two reserves, leaving an estimated $108,379.
Tax rate
Rose $1.72 (17.4%) in December 2025 to fix a 2025 rate-setting error. The proposed 2026-27 rate is $11.07.
High school tuition
Tuition runs about $17,000-$19,000 per student. Unity has no high school, so this is one of its largest costs.
Audits behind
FY23-FY25 audits were not done on time under SAU 6. A forensic audit was approved in November 2025.
The business administrator said in January 2026 that 2025-26 spending was running about $110,000 under budget. The school left the state's bottom 5% (CSI) list in fall 2025.
Where the district stands
Major projects
Leaving SAU 6 to form SAU 109
underwayUnity set up its own central office with a part-time superintendent and business administrator, and its own payroll, accounting and website.
- Sunapee declines to provide SAU services; Newport interested
- Board approves superintendent contract (Forrest Ransdell)
- Withdrawal agreement with Claremont approved
- SAU 109 begins
Funding
SAU line in the 2026-27 budget (start-up costs moved from 2025-26)
Bus and storage garage
underwayA garage built by LaValley's on a new pad, with $16,430 in site work by Kurtz.
- Concrete pad poured
- New $56,499 sales agreement approved
- 50% deposit paid; awaiting installation date
Funding
Oberkotter Foundation donations
Rewriting board policies for the new SAU
underwayThe board added a policy meeting on the fourth Wednesday of each month to adopt required NHSBA policies, starting with finance, purchasing, safety and discrimination policies.
- Purchasing, credit card and federal grant policies adopted
- First readings of required safety and civil-rights policies
- First readings of 20 more policies
- First readings of 22 more policies, including board ethics
Funding
Staff time
Recent news
Unity School Board agendas, meeting packets and draft minutes from the public Google Drive folder linked on the SAU 6 Unity page and the new SAU 109 School Board page, November 2025 to August 2026, plus the 2026 warrant, voters report and board policies. Scanned files were read with OCR.
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