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‘We get killed every year:’ School board blasts state downshifting

By Kathy Cleveland - Staff Writer | Jan 13, 2019

MILFORD – School board members are defending their proposed budget for next year, saying the downshifting of costs on the part of the state is the main reason school costs keep going up.

The proposed budget is $42.84 million, $64,880 more than the current budget, and voters can weigh in on it at the public hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 7 p.m. in Room 182 of the high school.

Monday night board members voted 5-0 to approve the spending plan, and at their Dec. 17 meeting, member Jennifer Siegrist said school taxes have gone up 58 percent over the past 10 years because New Hampshire keeps shifting the costs to towns and cities.

It is “difficult or impossible for some homeowners to deal with that,” she said, and changes made by the board “move the needle ever so gently,” because New Hampshire budgets are saddled with costs from the state, especially pension costs, which make up more than $883,000 in Milford’s current school budget.

Also at the December meeting, Superintendent Jessica Huizenga went over what she called budget “misperceptions” said the idea that teachers are being cut so that adminstrators can be added is not accurate. Out of 20 to 30 school districts in New Hampshire, she said, Milford “is nowhere near heaviest in administrators, and the budget is adding staff who have direct contact with students.

Administrative positions, including an assistant principal at the high school and a director of academic studies, were reduced, she said, and department heads who are also going to teach, were added.

The 3.0 FTE (full time equivalant) teaching positions cut in the new budget, she said, is less than

the average number of Milford teachers cut each year over the past five years.

“This budget is very lean,” said school board Chairman Ron Carvell, and the prospect of $184,000 in additional cuts, if the default budget passes, would be “scary.”

Milford Spanish teacher Angel Piedra suggested that local businesses seem to be booming and perhaps should be asked to pay more in taxes. He wanted to know if the school board works with town officials on keeping taxes in check.

Carvell said board members meet with their town counterparts.

“We are not fighting each other,” he said. “It is the state and its unfunded mandates” that are a major part of the problem. “We are all communicating with state lawmakers” and hoping to see changes.

“We do not cut teachers to lower taxes,” Carvell said. Cuts are based on enrollment decline, and there will be cuts next year,” because of declining enrollments.

“We get killed” every year, as the state provides less and less revenue, he said. “We will try to use attrition … but the driving factor is enrollment.”

Steve Opre, a Milford resident and Amherst Middle School teacher, called a 58 percent budget hike over 10 years “peanuts,” compared to the “benefits my family received … this is a wonderful school system.”

Kathy Cleveland may be reached at 673-3100 or kcleveland@cabinet.com.

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