Holding town and school annual meetings over the internet followed by drive through voting didn’t feel right to Dunbarton’s elected officials.
Such a scenario, offered to towns through an executive order by the governor, “would not allow any voter discussion or voter-initiated amendments of the articles on the warrants,” Dunbarton moderator Rene Ouellet said. “Both boards felt this to be too restrictive of the give-and-take discussion that generally occurs during our meetings.”
The school district annual meeting on March 6 followed by Town Meeting on March 9 will be held in person at the community center at the Dunbarton Elementary School, which will allow for social distancing.
“School District Meeting generally has about 80 participants while Town Meeting generally draws about 120,” Ouellet said. “Our Community Center has room for 100 participants seated 6 feet apart, more if those people who live together sit together during the meeting.”
If there are more attendees, there will be classrooms available with SMART Boards and live video capability so that people can participate in the hearing.
“This seemed to be the best compromise, doing the best we could to minimize health risk and also allowing for as vigorous a participation as possible,” Ouellet said. The hope, he said, is for it to be “basically a regular town meeting.”
As town moderator, it is Ouellet’s responsibility to oversee safety during meetings and hearings, and he noted that in this capacity, he will be enforcing mask wearing, “as an addition to minimizing risk.”
For those who will not or cannot wear masks, Ouellet said that “one of the classrooms will be set up for folks who don’t want to wear a mask.” He added that wearing a mask, regardless of personal belief in their efficacy, “would be a courtesy to other town residents who are worried about COVID.”
Still, important to Ouellet and the town officials was accommodating as many people as possible and allowing everybody who wants to participate in the proceedings do so. “That’s the big thing, full participation, anyone who wants to do so,” Ouellet said.
On Thursday, the Board of Selectmen is holding a public meeting to discuss the school budget for 2021. The meeting will be held in person at the community center with a synchronous Zoom option.
The proposed budget up for public discussion is $8,571,662, an increase of $559,317, or about 7% over last year, according to a budget update from district superintendent Dean Cascadden.
Cascadden called the budget year “challenging” and noted that the increase was due to three main factors: union contracts being settled with wage increases, rising health insurance rates rising, and growing contributions to the state’s retirement system.
The meeting is set to begin at 7:05 p.m. and the Zoom link is available on the Dunbarton town website.