The school budget will take center stage for John Stark School District voters on Election Day in March, as it’s the only big cost item that voters are being asked to consider.

The district’s proposed school operating budget for 2023-2024 is $14.66 million, a 0.44% increase over this year’s budget of $14.59 million. It is estimated that this would raise the tax rate by $0.37 for Henniker residents and $0.11 for Weare residents. For a house valued at $350,000, this would represent an increase of $129.50 for Henniker residents and $38.50 for Weare residents.

If voters reject the proposed school budget in the polls, a default budget of $14.45 million would go into effect.

Contributing to the proposed school operating budget are increases in the district’s purchased services, which include a transportation, and increased tuition costs for Concord Regional Technical Center (CRTC) and Second Start as more John Stark students have become interested in those programs.

“We have more kids who want to participate in the Concord Regional Technical school, there are some fantastic programs there and we want to honor those requests,” Superintendent Jacqueline Coe said during a public hearing in the John Stark Regional High School cafeteria on Friday.. “So it’s additional tuition to do so.”

During the public comment session, Weare resident David Erikson, a retired technical education teacher, said he was pleased to see that John Stark is sending students to Concord’s technical program.

“My experience in other schools is that some of those kids are staying in school because of these opportunities. So nice job,” Erikson said.

Other proposed cost increases include $6,825 for property services, $8,702 for referees for junior varsity athletic games since the school has seen an increase in sports participation and money to contract with an outside speech-language pathologist, since the district hasn’t been able to hire one.

“We can’t hire – and almost no one in New Hampshire can hire – enough speech-language pathologists to meet the needs that we have,” Coe said. “Those are services we are required to to fill and so we are contracting out those services.”

According to assistant superintendent Natasha Kolehmainen, the John Stark School District has received $889,823 in four rounds of federal COVID grant funding over the last three years. The first year, the funds went mainly to cleaning supplies, personal protective equipment, facility improvements and remote learning costs like computer devices, Kolehmainen said. Going into the future, they plan to use it for social emotional learning, curriculum resources and professional development, tutoring and hiring a program coach.

Friday’s budget hearing was the first step in the annual meeting process for the John Stark School District, which uses the SB2 method. Next up is a deliberative session in February when voters can debate and modify the budget and warrant before voting by ballot on New Hampshire’s town Election Day, March 14.

John Stark’s deliberative session will take place Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. in the John Stark Regional High School cafeteria at 618 North Stark Highway in Weare. The School Board meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. and will recess for the session.

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