Hot topic: Voters in Weare will decide whether to offer full-day kindergarten at the district’s lower elementary school beginning next fall. Article 6, which is supported by the school board, calls for a $251,000 to be allocated for the program with revenue of $114,400 anticipated from adequacy funding to offset the principle amount.
Budget: The proposed operating budget is $15.3 million, an increase of less than 1 percent from last year. If that is defeated, the default budget would be $15.2 million, about the same amount as last year’s budget. The biggest items driving the budget are salaries and benefits.
Noteworthy articles: Voters will weigh the deal reached by the school board and Weare Education Association on a new collective bargaining agreement that calls for an increase of $206,785 next year and an increase of $239,520 in 2020-21.
An article calls for Weare to appropriate $28,353 to pay for ⅓ the cost of a school resource officer. The cost will be shared between Weare’s school district, the town and John Stark Regional High School. All three entities must support paying for their share of the project in their respective warrants for the deal to go through.
Article 8 asks voters to allow the school district to enter a tax-neutral deal for up to 15 years that would install up to $865,740 in energy-saving equipment, including a propane boiler, insulation and LED lighting. Annual lease payments would be approximately $85,000 and would be funded from annual energy savings in the operating budget.
Each of the articles listed in this section are supported by the school board.
When and where: The deliberative session is Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Weare Middle School. Ballot voting is March 12 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Weare Middle School.