MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Thursday, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig joined with mayors and school board chairs from New Hampshire’s other nine cities in a joint letter to state officials regarding financial aid for schools in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cities’ first concern comes from lost aid attached to free and reduced lunch programs. With the pandemic forcing school districts to engage in full or partial remote instruction and thus eliminating the immediate need for students to eat lunches at schools, many families eligible for free or reduced school lunches have not filled out needed waivers. If not addressed, this will skew budget projections in the near future, leading to free and reduced lunches potentially not being available when full in-person instruction returns.
In Manchester, 49.5 percent of students were eligible for free lunches and 7.31 percent were eligible for reduced-priced lunch prior to the pandemic. As of Oct. 31, those figures reduced to 33.99 percent and 4.49 percent respectively, leading to a projected $3.6 million funding decrease if not addressed before next fall.
Other cities are seeing similar budget projection shortfalls caused by the pandemic’s statistical outliers. Thanks to reduced free and reduced lunch waiver applications, Berlin reported a $310,000 shortfall as of November. Nashua is looking at a $1.6 million reduction in adequacy aid funding if its enrollment numbers don’t return to pre-pandemic levels and Rochester is looking at a $1.02 million budget gap due to the state shifting responsibilities on teacher retirement contributions to communities.
In addition to New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, the letter was also addressed to New Hampshire Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse and New Hampshire House of Representatives Speaker Sherman Packard.
