Town Meeting 2023

The Hopkinton School District’s budget received strong support for a 7.5% increase at annual meeting Saturday, but not before hearing concern about the effect of ever-rising tax rates.

“I don’t know how people my age can move to town,” said Mary Goddard, 32. “What is the town going to look like if nobody can afford to move here ... unless you’re rich? We’ll have great schools but no kids in them.”

More than two hours of discussion took place before a $24.89 million budget was approved, 186-51, by secret ballot vote. Combined with a $200,000 contribution to the district’s building maintenance trust fund, the meeting will increase the local school tax rate by $2.09 per $1,000 of assessed value, adding $627 to the annual bill of a $300,000 home.

Saturday’s debate at Hopkinton Middle/High School included two efforts to cut the budget, both voted on by secret ballot. First came an amendment to reduce it by $1.8 million to the level of last year’s budget of $23.07 million, which failed with 61 yes votes to 182 no votes. Then came an amendment to trim it by $200,000, which failed 90 yes to 157 no. About 5% of the town’s 4,613 registered voters attended the meeting.

The budget took an unusual route to Saturday’s meeting. The School Board first proposed a $24.89 million budget only to have the district Budget Committee balk at the price tag and ask for cuts. The board then reduced their proposal by $177,000, saying this would require cutting a fourth grade teacher and math specialist, after which the Budget Committee reversed course at a hearing in January and voted, 8-2, to support the original proposal.

One speaker noted that cuts would usually require cutting staff because the budget didn’t have a lot of “crayon money.”

In discussing the schools’ needs, several speakers cited the effect of the pandemic, which kept kids entirely or large at home for two years.

“We’re only beginning to see the hit that all kids in this country took from COVID,” said Cheryl Morse.

Among the biggest applause of the morning meeting came when resident Janet Ward criticized state government support for public education, which has been a source of contention in New Hampshire for decades. “They should change the way the state supports public schools,” she said.

Hopkinton is projected to receive $224,500 less in state adequacy aid than in the previous budget, according to figures provided by the district.

About four-fifths of the operating budget increase came from raises in contracts for teachers and staff approved at last year’s annual meeting. As with virtually all school districts, the bulk of costs in Hopkinton come from paying salaries and benefits for staff.

The district estimates it will spend an extra $135,000 on fuel and propane, reflecting higher energy costs, as well as an extra $120,000 to send pupils to the Concord Regional Technical Center, which has increased its tuition.

Several speakers noted that enrollment has been declining in the school system for a number of years, a situation that is common in many New Hampshire school districts. There were 1,008 pupils in the Hopkinton system in 2018 but only 928 are projected to be enrolled in 2024, a decrease of about 8%.

The effect this decline will have, and should have, on class size will be the topic of a new policy that the district will be drafting this year, officials said.

The school district has also altered how it works with the CIP, or capital improvement plan, which pays for expensive one-time items like new equipment and building repairs. The goal, officials said, was to avoid huge expenditures when things fail by keeping up with maintenance, moving from “capital replacement to capital improvement.”

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