Nottingham School Deliberative Session, February 8, 2023

Article #10 budget cap raised from 4% to 10%

The school deliberative session was largely perfunctory except for debate on amendments to warrant articles #10 and #3, with #10 being successfully amended but not #3. All other warrant articles will go to the voters unchanged. 

Article #10

Article #10 is a voter-petitioned article that proposed a 4% annual cap on increases to the school budget. This proposal was changed by amendment at the deliberative session. The cap that will be presented on the ballot will be 10% instead of the petitioned 4%.

At first there was an attempt to amend the wording to adjust the 4% cap for inflation. The school’s lawyer disallowed this amendment on the basis that changes in the statutory language were not allowed and the legislature had debated allowing such wording and decided against it. Following this an amendment was presented to change the cap from 4% to 10%, producing much debate, mostly impassioned speeches by those in favor of the 4% cap. When put to a vote the amendment carried 46 to 20.

Following this was a third attempt to split the difference, with a 6% cap proposed. This failed 16 to 31.

Article #3

Article #3 is about spending increases resulting from the collective bargaining agreement for the next three years. These negotiated wage increases are in the 2.0% to 2.5% range each year of the contract. 

Budget Committee Member Tom Butkiewicz presented an amendment to add text to the warrant article pointing out that the contract was negotiated in secret, contrary to the 2022 warrant article that called for contract negotiations to be open to the public. 

Based on input from the school’s lawyer - which was disputed by Tom Butkiewicz - the Moderator refused to allow consideration of the amendment. 

Budget Committee candidate Brent Tweed moved to overrule the Moderator’s decision. Motion defeated 46 to 16.