Shall the School District raise and appropriate as an operating budget, not including appropriations by special warrant articles and other appropriations 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 $29,766,431? Should this article be defeated, the default budget shall be $29,362,515, which is the same as last year, with certain adjustments required by previous action of the 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? (Majority vote required.)
Recommended by the School Board 5-0-0. Recommended by the Municipal Budget Committee 8-0-0.
Note: Warrant Article #1 (operating budget) does not include appropriations in any other warrant articles.
What it means: The SAU 90 Proposed Operating Budget is 3% more than last year (an increase of $872,000). That includes about half from increases in the Default Budget (non-discretionary), as follows:
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Note: The school district is seeking a 5% salary increase and associated benefits for 72 Non-Union employees; including those who work in Custodial, Support Staff, Technology, ABA Techs (behavioral support), Social Worker, and Administrators. These salary and benefit increases represent over 70% of the Proposed Budget increase over the Default ($287,116).
Those in favor say: Regarding the increases to the salaries and benefits for the 72 non-union employees, the school district is competing with other schools to hire support staff. It has been very challenging to find people, and some of this is due to potential applicants not being able to afford to live in this area. The requested increase will help to keep the District competitive, whereas over the years since SAU 90 was initiated, the non-union employee salaries have failed to keep up with increases in the cost of living thus making the District uncompetitive.
Those opposed say: No one spoke against the Article at the SAU 90 Deliberative Session.
Fiscal Impact: The difference between the actual budget from 2024-25 and what is proposed for 2025-26 is $872,002. That difference will add .22 per thousand of property valuation, or $143.00 for a household valued at $650,000. Of that, $77.22 would remain in place even if the budget is defeated, since it is part of the Default Budget. The proposed budget is asking for an additional $65.78, most of that for the non-union salary increases. ($77.22 required + $65.78 asked equals $143.00 total.)
Take your property valuation divided by 1000 and multiply by .22 to get your cost increase versus last year for the Proposed Operating budget, or by .12 to get the cost for the Default budget.