Shall the School District vote to raise and appropriate funds in the amount of $52,948 to provide child benefit services, in accordance with RSA 189:49, for students who are residents of the Hampton School District and attend Sacred Heart School located in Hampton, New Hampshire? BY PETITION (Majority vote required.)
Not Recommended by the School Board 2-3-0. Not Recommended by the Municipal Budget Committee 3-6-0.
What it means: Sacred Heart School is a private school in Hampton. Hampton students electively attend Sacred Heart as opposed to attending the Hampton public schools. This Article asks for an offset for child benefit services in lieu of the taxpayers paying for the students to attend public school. There are 46 Hampton students who are in attendance at Sacred Heart School in the current academic year (out of about 214 total attendance in grades Pre-K through 8). The dollar amount requested is $1,151 per student. Around 30% of the funding goes toward health-related services, and the balance is used for technology and similar items.
Those in favor say: Support of a local private school is very common throughout NH. As long as the funds appropriated are used for the child benefit services listed in the NH law, they may be expended for those purposes. The use of the funding by Sacred Heart School falls within the allowed purposes. The way it works is that Sacred Heart School sends invoices to the SAU 90 office, which is responsible for assuring they are valid and appropriate requests, and then the invoices are paid. No money is dispensed directly to the school.
Parents of Sacred Heart students are also Hampton taxpayers and they pay the same tax rate for SAU 90 as the parents whose children attend the public school. If those 46 children were to attend the SAU 90 schools, the cost might not be the average public school cost-per-student of $21,544 but it would certainly be more than the $1,151.00 that is being asked via this petition, especially because the funds are used for health-related and technology resources, which would be required regardless of which school the child attends.
Those opposed say: Some who opposed this funding request are concerned about separation of church and state. People have expressed concerns about supporting a religious organization, even if the funds are not specifically used for religious purposes. Some question whether this support benefits the Town as a whole.
Fiscal Impact: A Hampton home valued at $650,000 would bear a tax cost of $6.50 in 2025, but it is almost identical to the cost from previous years, meaning there would be no appreciable increase versus your last tax bill if this Article passes. Take your property valuation divided by 1000 and multiplied by .010 to get your cost. This decision is for the current year only.