Penny Conway didn’t waste any time after members of the Bow school board finished presenting the district’s $40 million budget.
She stepped up to the microphone in the Bow High School auditorium and made a motion to cut $500,000 from the proposed budget — a 1.22% reduction.
“For the average homeowner taxpayer, this would be the difference between paying a medical bill or paying for groceries or maybe paying for both,” she said at the school district’s annual meeting on Friday night. “So it seems arbitrary, but I think there’s some real-life application and potentially some fluff in the budget that we could remove if we look at programs.”
Conway suggested the district explore using different vendors for contracted services, reassess professional development programs and reduce waste in supplies to lower overall spending. At the same time, she said she hoped any reduction approved by voters would not result in cuts to school staffing levels.
However, after debating Conway’s proposal, voters decided to stick with the school board’s original plan.
They approved a budget that will raise the school district tax rate to $13.62 per $1,000 of assessed value, meaning a $500,000 home could see property taxes climb by $437 for a total tax bill of $6,810.
David Farr didn’t see the long-term benefit in slashing money from the budget. He said that while it might feel good in the immediate, budget cuts can mean fewer school staff and reduced support for students down the line.
Those kinds of conversations, he added, shouldn’t happen at the eleventh hour on meeting day.
“I have a nice house in Bow. It costs me a lot of money to live here, and I wish that we could do better,” said Farr. “ I think these are conversations we have to start next month as a community, and meet every month and figure out how to do it. Trying to change the budget the day of the school board meeting? I think it’s just a big mistake.”
The school district’s meeting unfolded very differently from the town’s annual meeting a few days earlier.
While the district manages a far larger budget, its meeting moved efficiently; the town meeting, on the other hand, dragged on for more than four hours and featured an unusually high number of secret ballots.
School board member Bryce Larrabee described this year’s proposed appropriation as “the leanest budget” the school district has ever brought before voters.
“I specifically remember saying to the superintendent at the last meeting, on that hand in fire, if we do this budget that we’re proposing, we are not going to make the school better,” he said. “Frankly, it’s disappointing that this is the number we have to bring because we are not improving the facility with this number, because it’s tight times and we’re doing the best we can.”
Despite financial constraints, schools in Bow will still see significant infrastructure improvements, including new bleachers at the high school, a new roof and the recabling of the school’s network, as voters passed all warrant articles at the meeting.
Rising health insurance costs also drew attention, with residents asking whether the school district can do anything to slow the sharp increases — a problem not unique to Bow.
Health insurance expenses have jumped nearly 20%, adding $947,713 to the district’s budget.
Duane Ford, the school district’s business administrator, said the district is actively exploring solutions to rein in those costs.
“I absolutely 100% agree that the course that private entities are on is an unsustainable course, and I think something has to change. I don’t know what that answer is yet,” Ford said.
The Bow and Dunbarton school district receives coverage through HealthTrust, a risk pool that provides health benefits to public-sector employees. Premium increases account for $770,089 of the district’s budget growth.
“That’s a very bad place to start from,” Ford said of the beginning of the budget process. “I think it’s imperative for me in the job that I do something and at least look at if there are alternatives, and we’re doing that.”