MANCHESTER, NH – After nearly five hours of deliberation on Monday night, the Manchester School Board voted to send a budget of $165,007,505 to the city Alderman for approval.
The budget will be accompanied by a list of programs and positions the district would not be able to sustain at that fixed amount. These would include middle school foreign language positions, middle school health positions, and three of the city’s five multi-sensory reading teachers.
Committee Vice Chair Arthur Beaudry of Ward 9 confirmed that the objective of the school board was to persuade the alderman to raise the budget cap to $170 million.
“I believe we should send a list of programs we could include at every cap level up until $170,000,” he told the already exhausted committee around 10:45 p.m.
Superintendent Bolgen Vargas suggested that no matter where they were capped, significant cuts and rearrangements would have to be made to the school board budget,
“Even at the $170,000 level … how can we operate an entity like this without a rainy day fund?” Vargas said.
The vote came on the heels of two others related to the budget for the coming fiscal year. A motion proposed by Beaudry passed with 9 yeas and 2 nays. The purpose of this motion was to reimburse the city for services to the school district such as nursing and ground maintenance by 5 percent in FY2018.
The board also discussed the possibility of selling their current office space at 195 McGregor St. and permanently relocating to the third-floor of Manchester High School West.
“I think this would be a show of good faith to the aldermen that we are trying to be financially responsible,”said Ward 2 committee member Debra Langton. That motion will be addressed at the next meeting of the school board.
Vargas’ budget recommends 18 total terminations of full-time employees from the school district in order to “close the expenditure gap with minimal impact:” Four from elementary, two from high school, four from CTE, five from ICT and three from multi-sensory reading, a program aimed at students with difficulty reading.
Four multi-sensory reading teachers from the district were present at the meeting, and spoke to the board. Kelly Mills pointed out that without multi-sensory reading classes, students who struggle with early reading would be sent into programs, “that no longer work for them.”
Mills stressed the need for “trailed, professional multi-sensory reading professionals …who use a method that is diagnostic … and allows a student individualized casing with immediate feedback.”
Concerned student Rama Osman of Manchester Central High School vocalized her worry about the 10 percent reduction in funds for books and supplies for the coming fiscal year.
“We are already short on books,” she told the committee, “we need more not less.”
Mayor Ted Gatsas, who also serves as board chair, Ward 7 committee member Ross Terrio, and committee member Dan Bergeron representing Ward 6 stressed the need to submit a proposal to the aldermen before April. “Things have a habit of slipping through the fingers of this committee,” Terrio said.
After the vote rejecting Vargas’ proposed budget cap, committee member Connie Van Houten, Ward 12, voiced the need to reconsider. She was supported by Ward 4 committee member Leslie Want, who called the rejection of the budget cap, “penny-wise … pound foolish.”
The motion to reconsider will be addressed at the next meeting of the school board.
