Conant Middle High School Principal David Dustin has proposed eliminating the school’s building trades program for the coming school year, as the district begins its early discussions about the 2026-27 budget.
Last year, the district faced the prospect of cutting programs and teachers after voters approved a budget reduced by $3 million from the School Board’s original proposal. The board’s original $33.76 million budget was lowered to $30.76 million during the deliberative session.
Voters also overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to build a new addition at Conant that would have served as a career and technical education center. The $22.9 million project, which would have received about $16 million in funding from the New Hampshire Department of Education, would have expanded the district’s existing building trades program and added culinary arts, EMT, and public safety courses.
“In the world of making tough decisions, this is one that I’m putting out for the board to consider, and the community to consider, and it’s not one I personally like. At all,” said Dustin.
The district currently does not have a building trades instructor, and has been tuitioning students interested in the class to the Keene building trades program. Dustin said he believes the budget discussions and CTE center debate last year made it difficult to fill the position after the departure of instructor Brock Cullen.
“Honestly, the decisions and the conversations last year kind of poisoned the well for me for being able to find somebody to teach this program. So, the teacher we previously had was somebody we had invested multiple years in to grow him into the role, and he had done a wonderful job.” Dustin said.
Dustin said past graduates of the program have gone on to apprenticeships, careers, and post-secondary education in the trades.
“He was doing a great job. And, unfortunately, when the discussion around CTE, particularly at the deliberative session occurred last year, there was vocal negative comments from people who have never stepped foot in his program or interacted with his kids, making comments like he ‘was the jack of all trades and the expert of none.’ And he heard those things,” Dustin said.
Dustin said that while those comments and the lack of support for a CTE center were not the only reason the instructor decided to leave the position, they did weigh in. He said he saw a lack of interest when he tried this summer to fill the position, with fewer job posting views than is typical, and no applicants.
“Saying ‘We value the trades’, but having discourse that doesn’t do that makes it hard for me to find somebody who’s going to come in and do this role,” Dustin said.
Dustin said the school’s current facilities are inadequate for a strong building trades program, and that the district does have options to tuition students to other communities for their trades programs, as it has been doing since the start of this year.
Dustin said that tuitioning students is a more expensive option and said expected vocational tuition increases are about $35,000, plus $12,000 for advanced technical schooling, and $50,000 for vocational transportation.
“Is this an efficient way to do CTE? No. However, I do think it’s a more appropriate and sustainable way, given that we don’t have the space or staff here,” Dustin said. When asked about keeping funding for a position in the budget and continuing to try to hire, Dustin said he would welcome it, but didn’t think it was fiscally responsible if he was unable to fill the position.
“I just don’t see it happening. So, I think that if we have to make choices, this is one to make. And, in some ways, I think the community made it,” Dustin said.
Conant Middle High School
Building principals also discussed their initial non-personnel budgets for individual schools during the meeting.
Dustin said his proposed budget restores items the School Board had previously cut but later reinstated using the district’s fund balance this summer.
“One assumption that I have is that the items that were funded with the unencumbered fund balance retention this year — so, athletics, activities, and the French teacher — would remain or end up in the final budget for the year,” Dustin said.
Dustin said if those items were not included, it could shift his priorities in later budget drafts.
He also noted that changes to state education requirements could affect staffing, including new rules that require each high school to have a business program. Dustin said the district has had as many as two business teachers in the past, but currently does not have any, relying instead on ConVal Regional High School for students interested in business courses. Technology, engineering and computer science are also now required to be structured as formal programs.
“The word program here is defined in the regulations. It’s a very specifically chosen word,” Dustin said. “We can’t one-off a learning goal and say we have a program, because a program requires a collection of learning opportunities that lead to proficiency in the state standards.”
Elementary school budgets
The proposed 2025-26 budget for Jaffrey Grade School would increase by about $33,000 compared to the current year — about $1,000 less than the budget proposed for JGS two years ago.
Increases include $5,000 for online subscriptions previously covered by grants and about $10,000 for field trips, restoring that line to 2024-25 levels. Another $10,000 is proposed for supplies, roughly $2,000 more than two years ago. These costs are partially offset by a $7,000 decrease for books and the elimination of summer programming.
At Rindge Memorial School, the current budget is about $57,000 lower than 2024-25, which represents about one-third of RMS’s non-personnel budget. The proposed budget for 2025-26 would increase the budget by about $46,000.
Increases include $4,000 for general supplies, $7,000 for Tier II instruction materials, $3,000 for online subscriptions, $1,700 for a second AED, $5,000 for STEM education, and $3,000 for new music chairs. Cuts include reduced library book spending and the removal of summer programming.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.