MONT VERNON – Voters on March 12 will be asked to approve a Village School operating budget of $5.16 million, slightly less than the current budget.

At the school district’s Feb. 6 deliberative session two warrant articles, the one that includes the budget and another one adding $50,000 from the budget surplus to a school maintenance fund for a new roof, were passed onto the ballot for the March 12 elections with no changes.

The proposed spending plan includes money for two more teachers, to bring down class sizes.

Classes that are too big mean the brightest students are not achieving to their potential, said Superintendent Adam Steel.

“You sent us smart kids,” he said, and the lowest and middle achieving students are exceeding expectations or are above average, but “the highest are not keeping up.”

Last September, the school hired an additional kindergarten teacher because of increased enrollment, and the proposed budget includes that position as well as an additional sixth grade teacher.

The budget also calls for the removal of two paraprofessional positions. Nancy Curry, a paraprofessional at the Village School, said that without the extra classroom help teachers can’t give the lessons they plan to give, and it’s not safe for one kindergarten teacher to have to deal with 15 five-year-olds all day.

But school board Chairman Thomas Driscoll said, “it is far more important to have two additional teachers” this year. And having an additional kindergarten teacher means 13 kids per class, said board member Kim Roberge.

A motion to add back into the budget $23,012, for one paraprofessional, failed.

Money for another Village School case manager is also in the budget, and that person would help keep up with a rise in student needs, according to the warrant article.

Part of the budget decrease is attributed to a drop in special education costs, because more students are kept in district, and also to a reduction in tuition for Amherst Middle School.

The school board unanimously supports the budget as well as the addition to the maintenance fund. There is no budget committee this year.

If approved, the budget would decrease the tax rate by 52 cents. For the average home, with an estimated value of $300,000, that would mean a decrease of $156.

Changes to state law mean some contractual costs are no longer allowed in the default budget, so if Article 2 is defeated in March, the default budget will not cover the increased costs of the district’s transportation contract.

The few dozen voters at the meeting applauded resident Anne Dodd when she urged them to spread the word on social media about the importance of supporting the budget. They also applauded Eileen Naber, a trustee of the trust funds, for providing an outdoor basketball court and a big screen and sound equipment for the auditorium.

No one filed for the three open school board positions this year – one for the Souhegan Cooperative board and two for the Village School board. King urged voters to draft people for the positions.

The second part of the voting process under Senate Bill 2 is ballot voting on March 12, from 7 a.m. -7 p.m., in the Village School.