With a new combined K-8 school under construction, the future of the current Allenstown Elementary School and Armand Dupont Middle School will come before voters.

In 2020, voters approved building the new school on River Road, which will house students from kindergarten to eighth grade. The school is expected to open in the fall of 2023, leaving the existing middle school and elementary schools vacant. Crews have been working in the past few weeks to finish all of the foundation work, while in other areas steel framing is already up and roofing work has begun.

Town officials have a vision to create a new municipal offices, a community center and business incubator space at the 33,000-square-foot old elementary school at 30 Main St,.

This year voters will be asked to transfer $200,000 of existing funds into a new municipal building reserve fund. Since the money will be taken from the unassigned fund balance, it isn’t expected to have an impact on the tax rate. 

Town residents will also be asked to purchase the old Dupont School at 10.5 School St. for $1 with the intention of reselling the property and keeping some of the land for recreational uses. 

At a budget public hearing Saturday, most of the discussion centered around next year’s proposed town and school budgets.

Most of theincreases have been devoted to personnel retention and pay increases.

Allenstown voters will be asked to approve an overall $47,000 increase for the police department to offer competitive salaries and discourage resignations, as part of the proposed town budget of $4.7 million, which represents a 4.8% increase in spending over the previous year. The budget is expected to raise the tax rate by  51 cents, which would be an additional $153 a year for a home worth $300,000.

A default budget of slightly over $4.5 million will be in place if the proposed budget is rejected.

Derik Goodine, the town administrator, said the turnover in the police department was fairly high last year.

“Some [officers] have left for other agencies because of the pay or just left because they wanted a career change,” said Goodine. “But we have a pretty good core staff of officers.”

Residents of Allenstown will also be asked to vote on a paraprofessional contract that raises staff compensation. The school, like the town, is having difficulty retaining its staff. 

If the proposed school budget is not approved, a default budget of $12.5 million will be implemented.

The proposed school budget of $12.7 million, is an increase of about 4% over the current budget. If defeated the default budget would be $12.5 million.

One priority this year, according to Kris Bellerose, vice chair of the school board, was increasing the wage schedule of district employees since salaries are coparatively low. 

“Kitchen staff and some workers are making $11 an hour and a real-time example is that we have staff that are leaving for McDonald's,” said Bellerose about the motivation for raising wages.

Voters will also be asked to pass a new three-year teachers contract.

The town and school deliberative session will be held on February 4 at 9 a.m. at the Armand R. Dupont Middle School, 10.5 School Street. The town portion of the meeting will take place first, followed by the school meeting.

]]>