Voters from Boscawen, Loudon, Penacook, Salisbury and Webster sailed through the Merrimack Valley School District’s annual meeting Thursday night, quickly approving all articles brought forward by the school board and turning down two petitioned articles with little discussion.
The district’s residents gave the green light to the school board’s proposed $40.4 million budget in a floor vote.
The only comments from the public about the budget came from Michael Jette of Webster, who said he was disappointed in the district’s decision to get rid of the International Baccalaureate program because federal funding sources dried up. He argued that the district needed to provide more details about what it would offer instead.
“I’m just hoping that whatever the board brings in to take the place of IB, it’s going to talk about third-party validation. Because that’s how an organization gets better. Not by internal measures,” he said.
Next year’s budget is $372,381 more than this year’s budget, an increase just under 1 percent. Major increases to the budget were in special education, where costs went up $433,955, and previously approved contracts, where additional spending totaled $428,732. The district saved on $113,684 by axing the IB program.
A three-year contract for administrators also got voters’ approval in a floor vote. Between the budget and contract, the tax rate per $1,000 of property value is expected to go up 4 cents in Webster, 50 cents in Salisbury, 36 cents in Penacook, 17 cents in Loudon and 18 cents in Boscawen.
Residents also gave the thumbs-up to a plan to purchase the property at 217 N. Main St., Boscawen, for $360,000 to build an emergency access road from Boscawen Elementary to Main Street. School board member Kristen Byron said the district would use the surplus fund to buy the property – not new taxes – and expected to be able to resell the home for a large chunk of its prior value once the road was built.
Voters weighed in on a petitioned warrant article creating a budget committee for the district, voting, 152-37, to table the idea, effectively killing the proposal.
Louise Andrus of Salisbury said before the vote that she’d put forward the idea because the school board’s first responsibility appeared to be to the schools, and not the taxpayers.
“We need oversight and transparency. More hands need to be put into this budget to see if there are areas – which I believe there are – where we can be more frugal,” she said.
But others, like select board Chairman Bruce Johnson, said they would vote – as they had in prior years.
“We have a budget committee. It’s all the people that are sitting here tonight. We are the legislative body; we can amend any article,” Johnson said.
And Lee Laughlin of Loudon said contested school board races were rare enough as it is.
“We cannot get people to fill the seats that we have right now. Where on Earth are we going to come up with – I think it’s 12 people we’d need?” she asked.
Voters also shot down a petitioned article moving the district’s annual meeting from Thursday to Saturday.
In the only contested race, Hilary Denoncourt beat out Andrus, 234-89, for a one-year seat on the Merrimack school board to represent Salisbury.
(Lola Duffort can be reached at 369-33 21 or lduffort@cmonitor.com.)