School Deliberative Session, February 7, 2024

The school deliberative session was largely uneventful except for a motion to increase the operating budget by $40.7k to add a para-educator - a position that had been in earlier iterations of the budget but had been removed by the time it got to the final version. This passed 35 to 29. At the start of the meeting, there were about 68 voters present. At deliberative session your vote can have a major impact. 

The meeting began at 6:00pm. It took about an hour before the first item - the operating budget - to be voted upon came to the floor. Details of the budget. 

There was a complaint that in the School Board’s presentation of how much the budget was being increased from last year that the method of calculation was deceptive. Several things got added to the operating budget via warrant articles last year, which caused the final operating budget to be higher than the proposed budget. The problem with the calculation is that the School Board used this final figure for the operating budget (i.e., operating budget plus warrant articles) as a point of comparison with the proposed budget without any warrant articles. 

Major drivers of the increases to the operating budget this year:

• Regular ed, up 1.14%

• Special ed, up 14.39%

• Health insurance, up 13.1%

• Dental insurance, up 4.7%

• Retirement fund, up 19.64%

The school’s current enrollment is 515. It employs 27 teachers. The district also pays tuition for the town’s high school students: 180 at Coe Brown, 90 at Dover High School, 20 at home, and 1 elsewhere.

The school’s Capital Improvement Program projects a $2.5 million building expansion to be put forward to the voters in 2025. 

All of the other warrant articles were put to the ballot as written.