NASHUA – Coming in nearly $700,000 over the mayor’s spending cap, school officials approved an education budget for next year, coming in at a 2.68 increase over the previous year’s budget.

After a series of budget meetings that began in January, Board of Education members reached an impasse, and members voted to pass the draft budget as is.

"As some point you have to recognize you’ve gone as far as you can go with this. With a few minor exceptions, I think we’re there," member George Farrington said, at the April 12 budget committee meeting, adding, "There is a provision in the cap that provides for an override."

The budget was passed the following day in a 5-3 vote. Coming in at $105.1 million, the budget is a net decrease of $95,810 from the superintendent’s 2.77 percent proposed budget, but $694,831 over the mayor’s budget cap of 2 percent.

"It has always been my belief that we go to the mayor with the budget that we feel we need," member Elizabeth Van Twuyver said at the April 13 meeting. "If they don’t like our budget, they can send it back to us and say ‘fix it.’?"

During the budget committee meetings this week, suggestions for further reductions to paraeducator staff, a 5 percent reduction to athletic funding, the elimination of all head teacher stipends and two part-time teachers for at-risk students were not successful. Board members advocated against reducing services and personnel they felt were critical.

"I don’t for a second want to go to the minimum standards, because I think it would negatively impact education," Farrington said.

Members did pass additions to the budget, including $34,020 for seven classrooms for pre-K struggling readers, and $12,000 for two college interns to help work on the iReady assessment program.

"I’m glad you’re being brave and sending that budget over what it is," said Judy Loftus, a career and technical education teacher at Nashua High School South, speaking to board members. "Don’t back down. Be strong. Be vocal about it."

Loftus said the details of the budget have broader implications to the health of the city, including property values.

"Force the conversation … what do you want to see for education in this city?" she said.

Although the education budget now heads to the city for review, the board still has work to do creating a list of proposed reductions should the city’s bottom line be lower than a 2.68 percent increase. Farrington said the list would show city officials what the implications of further cuts are for the school district.

Voting to pass the 2.68 percent budget were board members Van Twuyver, Farrington, Bill Mosher, David Murotake and Robert Hallowell. Voting against were members Dorothy Oden, Howard Coffman and Doris Hohensee. Board President Sandra Ziehm was unable to attend the meeting.

Oden said she could not vote for the budget, in part because it did not include enough paraeducator positions. "I just don’t think this meets the needs of our classrooms," she said.

Hohensee said the 2.68 percent budget does not reflect the prioritization of services and maintenance she wanted to see.

"I went to Mount Pleasant (Elementary School) today, and I was very disappointed with what I saw in terms of maintenance," she said.

Hohensee visited the elementary school after a team of teachers and parents advocated for more maintenance of the facility to address HVAC issues at the budget meeting April 12. "This budget is haphazard in the end, because we don’t have that level of prioritization," she said.

Nashua Teachers’ Union President Bob Sherman asked the board how they will reach a 2 percent spending cap and whether those reductions will include personnel.

"How many people will be laid off, and when are they going to be told? You still have major problems to face ahead of you," he said.

While the mayor’s spending cap for the education department is 2 percent, the majority of city departments are working with a 1.3 percent cap. If the education budget must be reduced to a 2 percent cap, the reduction would total about $700,000, but reducing the budget to meet a 1.3 percent cap would be closer to $1.6 million in reductions.

"When the aldermen give us the final number of what we can afford – that number may be less than 2 percent," said Murotake. "We can only get there through draconian cuts."

According to Superintendent Mark Conrad, teachers need to be notified of a possible lay off by the end of the second week of May.

Tina Forbes can be reached at 594-6402, tforbes@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_TinaF.

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