During a three-hour meeting that began with a dispute over wearing masks and ended with a debate over teaching about racism, Weare School District deliberative session approved an operating budget and two contracts Wednesday night.
The most heated discussion came at the end of the meeting when the crowd changed a petitioned warrant article that would have prohibited teaching about “topics such as critical race theory or any of its derivative philosophies” into one that “encourages open inquiry and honest discussion” about U.S. history.
Proponents of the original article argued that the change was too great to be allowed to come to a vote since it does not even mention critical race theory. State law allows wording of petitioned articles to be amended at deliberative session as long as the subject of the article is not changed.
After discussion, Moderator Luther Drake allowed the amendment to stand. The new wording was approved by a show of hands from the crowd of fewer than 40 people and will go on the ballot at the March 8 election.
As part of the ballot March 8, voters will be asked “shall the district permit and encourage open inquiry and honest discussion of social and political movements in U.S. history from 1607 to the present?”
“(School district attorney Diane Gorrow) suggested that because the new language made no reference to the subject of critical race theory, that would cross the line of legality about what changes could be made,” Drake said Thursday, explaining his decision to allow the amendment. “I was moved by the argument that the concept was still ‘what are we going to advise be taught or not be taught.’ I didn’t feel there had to be critical race theory in the body of the (article).”
Drake said he would not be surprised if his decision to allow a vote on the amendment ended up in court, but noted that “as moderator, you’ve got to make the call at the moment.”
No matter the wording, the article would be advisory and not binding if it is approved on election day, attorney Gorrow said.
The original 92-word petitioned article would have asked voters to prohibit teaching “any program that instructs that the United States, the State of New Hampshire, or any New Hampshire resident is inherently racist or intolerant” and would have made “school board members, district administrators, and faculty be responsible and accountable for enforcing state law and this warrant article to protect students from discriminatory educational practices and modules.”
At the start of the meeting, School Board Member Daniel Recupero declined to wear a mask but also refused to move away from his seat in the middle of the table for the five-person board. COVID-19 rules established by the moderator required masked and non-masked participants to sit in separate sections of the room – last year, they had to sit in different rooms in the elementary school.
By a show of hands, the meeting voted 17-16 to override the rules and allow Recupero to stay in his seat.
In other business at the mostly-calm meeting, residents placed the following items on the March 8 ballot:
■An operating budget of $17.3 million, about 3.7% over the operating budget approved last year. It would raise the tax bill on a house assessed at $350,000 by an estimated $371 a year. The budget was narrowly supported by the finance committee, 5-4, due to concerns about rising costs not reflecting a decline in enrollment. The deliberative session rejected by show a hands a proposed amendment that would have reduced the budget to $17.1 million, also due to declining enrollment.
■A two-year teachers contract that would give raises of about 5% each year to all levels. School board members said this is necessary to hold onto teachers who otherwise move to nearby districts with high pay, especially at lower levels.
■A one-year contract for support staff including paraprofessionals that would raise the average hourly rate from $14.05 to a projected $15.25.
■Changing half-day kindergarten to full-day kindergarten. The estimated cost of $227,029 would be more than offset by $246,133 from the state’s adequacy funding, and extra staffing would be balanced by removing the current cost of mid-day bus transportation, officials said. Weare is one of five districts in the state that doesn’t offer full-day kindergarten.
