Residents did not propose any amendments to the ConVal School District warrant at the deliberative session on Tuesday night. The meeting adjourned in an hour and a half, with no voter discussion on the majority of the 10 proposed warrant articles.
Superintendent Kimberly Rizzo-Saunders explained the major changes in the budget. The proposed gross budget of $50,565,102.85, which is $1.422 million higher than the default budget of $49.143 million. She explained that more than 75 percent of the increases came from salary and benefit costs, and explained the new staff and faculty positions included in this year’s budget.
Rizzo-Saunders also described the order in which programs would be cut if the budget increase was not passed, and the school had to revert to a default budget. Although no athletic programs were specifically named, the high school’s alpine and Nordic ski teams were present and stood as alpine ski coach Holly Wilson and Peterborough resident Ken Phillips spoke in favor of voting in the budget as recommended to avoid program cuts.
“Sports do build good citizens,” Wilson said.
Phillips acknowledged that some residents may have good financial reasons to resist a budget increase, but as a parent of a student, he saw it as crucial to support the budget as recommended by the school board.
“The things we will lose if we default are the things that will make our students the kinds of people that we want to lead this community in the future,” Phillips said, citing his daughter’s participation on the high school’s Nordic Ski team.
“It’s a sad state of affairs that we no longer have a dialogue about spending $50 million,” Hancock resident Tom Weldon said.
He voiced concern that the school’s budget was increasing as the student population was declining, and reminded the board that decisions had to be made when building maintenance was required on some school buildings populated at less than 50 percent capacity. A Francestown resident later said that he suspected many people in the audience “sat quiet for 50 million” because they “trust what’s happening.”
No voters commented on Articles 5 and 6, which concern the development of a rooftop solar array at the high school. Board members clarified that the Energy Projects and Efficiency Fund proposed in Article 6 would fund an eventual buyout of the solar array, and would not be funded by the same capital reserve fund process that contributes leftover monies at the end of the year.
Former School Board Chair Myron Steere spoke to his rationale for petitioning Warrant Article 9, a petitioned article that seeks to resolve what he described as currently “unfair” costs accrued by the School District when using facilities owned by town recreation departments, such as in Peterborough and Antrim. He cited instances in the past where the School District paid for maintenance of town-owned facilities, or received bills with no explanation, and said the article would start the process of developing a fairer exchange.
State Senator Jeanne Dietsch spoke in favor of the budget proposed by the School Board, and said that, although it was not soon enough to include in this year’s budget, the state legislature was currently fast-tracking a measure that would reinstate access Medicaid to Schools, a source of revenue the District abruptly lost in August 2019 to the tune of $300,000.
The meeting ended with a resolution thanking two school board members with expiring terms who would not be running again. Crista Salamy, one of Antrim’s two representatives, served on the Board for nine years and Kristen Reilly, one of Peterborough’s four representatives, has served for four. Alan Edelkind of Dublin, Stephan Morrissey of Francestown, Katherine Heck of Greenfield, and James Fredrickson of Sharon are all running for reelection this year.
Residents can vote on the School District’s warrant articles on March 10 at their town’s polling place.