Hundreds of voters rolled up to Hopkinton High School on Saturday to take part in the school district’s annual meeting with spending on their mind, but first, they had to wait.
So many people came out – more than 1,400 – long lines of cars formed forcing some residents to wait more than an hour before casting their ballots.
When they did get to vote, town residents rejected the two costliest items on the budget – the operating budget and the teacher’s contract.
The line of cars snaked all the way back to the center of Contoocook as volunteers and police officers directed traffic.
“Thank you very much for coming out to vote today and especially for your patience with the long lines to check-in,” Moderator James Newsom wrote to voters. “I am sorry that the process took so long, but I am sure you were more comfortable in your car than on the bleachers in the gym.”
When Hopkinton voter check-in volunteer Dulcie Lipoma saw her friends pull up for the drive-through meeting, she was thrilled to see them. However, there was no time for chit-chat since keeping things moving was the top priority, she said.
Two rows of check-in volunteers got voters’ names, and handed out ballots. Voters made their decisions and then placed their ballot into a recycling container under the watchful eye of Newsom.
When one voter was notified he could be waiting a while, he said, “I kinda figured that.”
The district’s $21.4 million operating budget presented a 4.5 percent increase over the current budget.
Five attempts to amend the district’s budget – four to lower it and one to raise it by $200,000 – all failed.
A final vote on the budget, as it was originally proposed, failed with 786 voting no and 617 voting yes. Since the district didn’t have a default budget, voters will have to come back on Saturday, May 30 to reconsider the budget.
The other big-ticket item was a proposed teachers contract, giving 100 teachers, nurses and councilors a 2.75 annual increase per year for three years. The cost of the agreement was a little more than $300,000 per year.
The contract failed to pass by fewer than 20 votes, with 707 voting no and 688 voting yes. The school board will consider having voters readdress the contract at a special meeting.
Together, the budget and teachers contract would have increased taxes by about $345 a year for a home worth $300,000, according to school district officials.
One of the first items on the budget, to move the district to SB2 voting, creating a deliberative session and ballot voting instead of a live annual meeting, failed to receive the required 60% threshold to pass. A majority of voters agreed – 53 percent – but that was about 1oo votes short of the required threshold.
Full results can be found at the school district’s website.