(The Bow School District annual meeting schedule was set to begin Tuesday, April 14, but has been delayed a week due to technical difficulties during Tuesday night’s virtual meeting. The first meeting will be held Tuesday, April 21 instead.)
The old tradition of standing in line to talk into the microphone during the school annual meeting won’t be happening this year in Bow.
The School District, which postponed its annual meeting in March as the threat of the coronavirus became more serious, is holding two virtual meetings next week, followed by drive-by voting at the high school on Saturday, April 25.
The first step of the process is set to begin Tuesday, April 21 night at 7 p.m., when residents will have the chance to tune into a live-stream presentation of the warrant articles or by phone (see below).
No live comments will be allowed during the meeting.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week, residents may submit public comment by “telephone, email and other electronic means.” Comments can be emailed to DistrictMeeting@bownet.org or messages can be left at (603) 415-3585.
“Questions and comments should start with the voter identifying his or her name and street address in Bow, and include any questions and comments about the Warrant Articles and these procedures,” School District Moderator James Hatem said.
Then on Friday, April 24, at 5 p.m., the Bow School Board will hold another virtual meeting to review all of the public comments and make any amendments to the warrant to be voted on Saturday. No live public comments will be taken at that meeting, either.
“The board is really looking at receiving community input between tonight’s meeting and Friday’s meeting,” Superintendent Dean Cascadden said.
Ballots will be available online after the Friday night meeting and residents are invited to print them at home to bring to the drive-by voting at Bow High School starting at 9 a.m. on April 25. Those with last names starting with the letters A-M are asked to arrive between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Voters with last names with letters starting with N-Z are asked to show up after 11 a.m. Polls will close no earlier than 1 p.m.
People will drive up in their car, show their licenses to the supervisor of the checklist by pressing their identification card to their closed window, and vote either using a pre-printed ballot or one provided to them on site.
“They’ll fill it out in their car, they’ll drive down to the ballot box, they’ll check to make sure that the right number of ballots are being deposited,” Cascadden said. “It’s kind of like drive-by voting.”
Ballots must be delivered in person.
“One voter may exit the vehicle, demonstrate to the moderator that a proper number of ballots are about to be cast, and deposit the marked ballot into the ballot box,” Hatem said in memo about the procedures.
Social distancing will be enforced.
“All participants are required to keep no less than six feet of distance between each other, to comply with the governor’s orders prohibiting gatherings of 10 or more people,” Hatem said.
The proposed warrant includes some big-ticket items leading to a future expansion renovation of the Bow Elementary School.
Article 3 takes $150,000 from capital reserve funds for architectural and design work, and Article 4 puts $1 million into capital reserve for future work, raising the total available to $2.7 million. If the two articles pass, voters would consider the whole project in 2021, probably adding six classrooms and making major renovations to the 40-year-old building.
Cascadden said on Tuesday the world has changed drastically since Articles 3 and 4 were proposed, given the COVID-19 outbreak. People are out of work, facing extreme financial burden and worried about the tax impact of a major renovation proposal.
“That’s the one everyone is concerned about. The $1 million into the capital reserve is a pretty heavy tax impact, and now that we’ve been where we are with the virus, it’s like, ‘Can we really do this project in the timeline?’ ” he said Tuesday.
The proposed operating budget for the Bow School District is $30.35 million, about 5.3% higher than last year’s $28.8 million, with the bulk of the increases coming in regular and special programming. If the budget and all warrant articles pass, the local school tax rate would increase 20 cents, or 1.5%, adding $60 to the annual bill of a house assessed at $300,000. The state school tax rate would add another 4 cents.
The Bow Town Meeting was held on March 12, just before the coronavirus crisis grew dire. Voters approved nearly all warrant articles, including the $11.63 million operating budget, which was a drop from last year’s $11.78 million budget. The decrease was due in part to a town-wide assessment, which lead to significant increases to many tax bills.
Other items that were approved included $711,000 from capital reserve plus $1.93 million in state and federal grants to rebuild the Dunklee Road Bridge at the intersection with Route 3A; $2,771 to replace streetlights with efficient LEDs (another $45,176 would come from utility incentives and rebates); and turning Farrington Corner Road from a Class 6 road into a town-owned trail; and a number of purchases, including about half a million dollars for a new ambulance, half of which would come from Fire Truck Capital Reserve Fund.
Information for accessing the school district’s virtual meetings can be found on the district’s website. Those wishing to do so by phone by calling (312) 626-6799 or (929) 205-6099. The meeting ID: 256 013 0388. No participant ID is required, callers must press #. The password to join the meeting is: 123456.
Video of the meetings will be able to be found on YouTube after the fact.
If the procedures prove to be too complicated, the meeting may be suspended.
“If the moderator determines at any point that these procedures are unworkable or not in the best interests of Bow voters, the Moderator will recess the meeting to a specific date, time and place,” Hatem said.