Results of Special School District Meeting, October 4, 2023

Warrant article passed overwhelmingly.

The Moderator noted that the turnout was unexpectedly large. There were delays in checking in the voters necessitating the creation of an additional check-in line. Once everyone checked in it was standing room only in the school cafeteria.

The warrant article was overwhelmingly approved. There was no official counting of the votes. It looked to me like the ratio of yes to no was 20 to 1. 

For information on the warrant article, see this prior Nottingham Blog article. 

The School Board unanimously recommended that the voters pass the warrant article. The Budget Committee thought otherwise, recommending by a 6 to 5 margin that the voters reject the warrant article. The six committee members who formed the majority were: Michael Kelly, Bob Kelly, Brent Tweed, Tom Butkiewicz, Jeffery Morrison, and John Decker.

At the start of the meeting, the School Board gave a presentation about why they recommended approving the warrant article and what they planned to do with the funds. 

• The special meeting had to be called because the state did not offer these funds in time for the regular meeting last March. 

• The state has revised its formula for sharing revenue with school districts. The new formula gives Nottingham more money. In particular, the town is getting more money because of the number of students who qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches. 

• The School Board wants to use $106k of this money for building maintenance, primarily to cover unexpected repairs to the heating system. $50k to technology, due to a cyber security audit over the summer that found security issues. $30K for textbooks and other teaching materials.

• The building maintenance needs are acute. In January a heating pipe burst, damaging the boilers. The school had to be closed for two days while there were emergency repairs. 

• New boilers were installed over the summer. The total repair cost was $264k, some of which will be covered with grant funds. 

• There is an upcoming roof replacement which will cost $104k

• The textbook capital reserve fund has been depleted.

Following the presentation there was a period for public comments and questions. Voters addressed the following issues:

• On what basis did the Budget Committee decide to recommend to “degrade our school”? Budget Committee member Tom Butkiewicz said that the money being provided by the state should go back to the taxpayers rather than going outside the budgeting process to give it to the school. Budget Committee member Brent Tweed reminded the public that the town will receive this money regardless of the vote on the warrant article. This meeting is about how the money will be spent. The Budget Committee believes there are already sufficient funds in the school budget to pay for the things the School Board wishes to spend these funds on. There is money in the school’s capital reserve for covering these unforeseen maintenance costs. Tom Butkiewicz noted that the town spends an average of $20k per student, whereas tuition at UNH is only $16k.

• If the school were not to get this money, what would the Budget Committee do with it? Brent Tweed responded that the money would go into the general fund where it could be used to reduce next year’s taxes. 

• Subtracting the cost to repair the roof would leave only $123k in the capital reserve fund. The cost of replacing the boilers is higher than that. 

• Why doesn’t the $65k that the state is giving the town earmarked for the town’s general fund have to go through a voting process like this?