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See the Concord Monitor articles listed to the right, as well as these local articles:
2017 School Budget at $10.4 Million - Dec. 23, 2016
2017 School Budget cut, Resource Officer nixed - Jan. 13, 2017

2016-2017 School Board budget (current): $9,772,498
2017-2018 School Board proposed budget: $10,392,853
2017-2018 Budget Committee proposed budget: $10,000,000
2017-2018 budget after Deliberative Session: $10,392,853

VOTER'S GUIDE

Print this first page and take it to the voting place.

Article 1 – School Budget

Proposed budget: Shall the Allenstown School District vote to raise and appropriate as an operating budget, not including appropriations by special warrant article and other operations voted separately, the amounts set forth on the budget posted with the warrant or as amended by vote of the first session, for the purposes set forth therein, totaling $10,392,853?

Should this article be defeated, the operating budget shall be $10,184,208 which is the same as last year, with certain adjustments required by previous action of the Allenstown School District, or by law, or the governing body may hold one special meeting in accordance with RSA 40:13, X and XVI, to take up the issue of a revised operating budget only.

The School Board recommends approval. Budget Committee strongly DOES NOT recommend approval by a vote of 10 Yes to 3 No.

[Note: Warrant Article #1 (operating budget article) does not include Warrant Article 2, 3, an 4.]

Commentary: At the Jan. 14 Public Hearing, a former school board member expressed dismay at the huge size of the school budget. But he had reviewed the budget spreadsheet and was able to reduce the budget to $10.0 million without employee cuts. That meant that the school board needed to reexamine its estimates. The current $10 million amount is still an aweful lot of money for only 570 students.

At the Feb. 4 Deliberative Session, school partisans packed the meeting and forced through an increase of about $400,000! The estimated tax increase is about $3.84/1,000 (based on school board remarks).

For a $200,000 home, the tax increase will be $768.00 on top of the $6772 tax bill (based on $33.86/1,000 for 2016). For a $300,000 home, the tax increase will be $1,154.00 on top of last year's $10,158 bill.

Bottom Line: Something's got to give. With a slowly declining, aging population, you can't keep forcing higher taxes on fewer taxpayers.

Recommendation: Vote NO to defeat the $10.4 million proposed budget and get the $10.2 million default budget.

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Article 2 – Teacher 3-Year Raises

Shall the Allenstown School District vote to approve the cost items set forth in the collective bargaining agreement reached between the Allenstown School Board and the Allenstown Teachers Association for the 2017/2018, 2018/2019, and 2019/2020 fiscal years which calls for the following increases in salaries and benefits at the current staffing levels:

Year 2017/2018   $75,276
Year 2018/2019   $65,304
Year 2019/2020   $64,786

And further raise and appropriate the sum of $75,276 for the 2017/2018 fiscal year, such sum representing the additional costs attributable to the increase in salaries and benefits required by the new agreement over those that would be paid at current staffing levels?

School Board recommends approval. Budget Committee recommends approval by a vote of 7 Yes to 6 No.

Commentary: The school budget has already been shown to be excessively high, so this warrant article just adds salt to the wound. More precisely, the first year of raises adds $0.31/1000 to the tax increase in Article 1.

The amount stated above is to be distributed among 44 teachers. For the first year, that is about $1,710 per teacher. The teachers have already received raises for the last four years (see the 2013 school warrant). Now they want guaranteed raises for three more years.

So many people in our town and around the state are either long-term unemployed, underemployed, or living on Social Security for which the federal government offered a 0% increase for 2017.

School employees should be thankful that they have jobs in this poor economy. Many people in private business have not had raises in years. At the beginning of the year, you must have seen the news that Macy's Department Store announced the closing of 36 stores and layoffs of 4,500 people nationwide. Where will those people get the money to pay their taxes?

Recommendation: NO. Taxpayers are being overburdened with taxes. The economy must become strong enough for people to afford any increase in taxes.

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Article 3 – Para-Professional 3-Year Raises

Shall the Allenstown School District vote to approve the cost items set forth in the collective bargaining agreement reached between the Allenstown School Board and the Allenstown Paraprofessional Association for the 2017/2018, 2018/2019, and 2019/2020 fiscal years which calls for the following increases in salaries and benefits at the current staffing levels:

Year 2017/2018   $27,160
Year 2018/2019   $24,022
Year 2019/2020   $23,945

And further raise and appropriate the sum of $27,160 for the 2017/2018 fiscal year, such sum representing the additional costs attributable to the increase in salaries and benefits required by the new agreement over those that would be paid at current staffing levels?

School Board recommends approval. Budget Committee recommends approval by a vote of 8 Yes to 5 No.

Commentary: The same commentary as for article 2 applies here. The first year of raises adds $0.11/1000 to the tax increase in Articles 1 and 2. Adding this increase to articles 1 and 2 gives a total tax increase of $4.26/1000.

The amount stated above is to be distributed among 29.6 paraprofessionals (some work part-time). For the first year, that is about $917 per paraprofessional. They have already received raises for three recent years (see the 2013 school warrant). Now they want guaranteed raises for three more years.

Recommendation: NO. Taxpayers are being overburdened with taxes. The economy must become strong enough for people to afford any increase in taxes.

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Article 4 – School Resource Officer

Shall the Allenstown School District vote to create the position of School resource Officer (SRO) for the 2017/2018, 2018/2019, and 2019/2020 school years pursuant to an an agreement with the Town of Allenstown, and furthermore to raise and appropriate the first year's costs of funding the position in the amount of eighty-four thousand dollars ($84,000)?

NOTE: The SRO will be employed by the Town and contracted to the School District for the school year. The agreement reached between the Town and the School District is for (3) years, 2017-2018 through 2019-2020, but the costs for years two and three will be submitted to the school district voters for approval each year. (Majority vote required.)

School Board recommends approval. Budget Committee DOES NOT recommend approval by a vote of 1 Yes to 12 No.

Commentary: At the Jan. 12, 2017 Budget Committee meeting, Selectman Gryval disputed the content of the SRO article, stating that the selectmen HAVE NOT agreed to anything, since the school board never met with them to discuss the article. In addition, he stated it would cost about $40,000 (which they don't have allocated) and take about nine months to hire and fully train an officer. Who pays for that?

He also questioned how they came up with their cost estimate. The school board admitted that they would fund the officer only for time actually spent at the school. The town would have to pay and reassign the officer when schools were closed during the year and all summer.

Since the last SRO quit in Sept. 2016 due to lack of an agreement, there will be no SRO at least until the end of the year (even if funded). If we can do without one for that long, why do we need one at all? One school board member admitted that there are no SROs anywhere nearby except at Pembroke Academy.

Recommendation: NO. The actual costs and who will pay them have not been clearly defined and the position has not been fully justified. The school's unwillingness to own the funding for this position makes it completely unworkable.

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Article 5 – Accepting Gifts

Shall the School District authorize the School Board to accept on behalf of the District, without further action by the voters, gifts, legacies, and devices of real or personal property which may become available to the District during the fiscal year?

School Board Recommends approval.

Commentary: If any gifts are received, they need to be used to reduce the school taxes.

Recommendation: YES

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Article 6 – Other Business

To transact other business that may legally come before said meeting.

Commentary: If there is no other business at the deliberative session, the next step is the March 14 elections.

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Town Warrant Articles

Town Candidates

School District Warrant Articles

School District Candidates

Back to 2017 Election page

Concord Monitor Feb. 4 article

Transcript of Feb. 4 Deliberative Session

Concord Monitor Jan. 5 article

Concord Monitor Jan. 18 article

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