A pair of detailed, lengthy slide shows supplied the meat and potatoes at Saturday’s Winnisquam Regional School District meeting, along with a resident whose rambling statements created tangents that were hard to follow.
The proposed budget of $26.5 million for the three-town district passed and translated into decreased tax rates for Northfield ($1.09) and Sanbornton (33 cents), and an increase for Tilton (50 cents).
Nina Gardner, the chairwoman of the budget committee, used a projector to break down areas of the budget section by section, revealing that the district would save nearly $89,000 by switching to unleaded and diesel purchases; $88,000 by moving alternative educational students to Winnisquam Regional High School; $56,000 by eliminating a full-time teaching position; and $29,000 by decreasing one route from bus runs.
Other lesser cuts included the elimination of the golf team, reduced maintenance on athletic fields and a reduction in staff overtime.
All staff members, including those not affected by the collective bargaining agreement and all paraprofessionals, were placed on the same consumer-driven health insurance plan, saving $26,000.
As for the district’s educational efforts, data put the average SAT scores at 959, 68 points below the state-wide average. However, the graduation rate at Winnisquam Regional High School has increased from 73 percent in 2010 to 88 percent last year, plus the drop-out rate slid to 2.5 percent in 2016 from 9.5 percent in 2010.
The largest sum of money was a $458,000 commitment, dollars taken from the unreserved balance fund and moved to the building renovations and repairs capital reserve fund for basic upgrades and maintenance throughout the district.
This included the removal of an underground storage tank and boilers at the middle school, converting the industrial arts space into classrooms and the installation of a wireless access network.
Teachers were given a $94,535 raise, as was agreed upon in the collective bargaining agreement, and up to $50,000 from the unreserved fund balance will be banked for special education.
A woman questioned why the administration needed to earn 10 percent of the total budget, saying, “The top administrator makes three times the salary of a teacher.”
The majority of dialogue was generated by resident Dave Court, who offered unclear, hard-to-follow reasoning, including an analogy to the Titanic, to illustrate his points.
Court initially focused on competition within the educational system, seeking the school board’s opinion on education savings accounts, which give students options beyond public schools through special accounts.
From there, though, Court moved into the ratio between paid positions and the number of faculty members who fill them, citing page after page of data in the annual report and adding, “It’s an example of deck chairs on the Titanic. It gets confusing.”
“I want true competition, Court added. “Count the number of banners on this wall. There’s only one academic banner up there, and I’m okay with that. If we’re an athletic school, let’s be an athletic school.”
Later, Court acknowledged that his thoughts were sometimes hard to grasp and not always conveyed clearly.
“I admit many of my statements are convoluted,” Court said. “If we believe in competition, will the school system and those that are attached to it encourage, promote and work towards ESAs? That was the only question I asked.”
Answered Jasen Stock, chairman of the school board, “We have not looked at the ESA. I put it on my list. We’ll take a look at that.”