After cutting $279,000, the Jaffrey-Rindge School Board approved and recommended a proposed $30.38 million budget to put before voters in March during the district’s budget hearing Thursday.

The default budget remains $29.8 million.

The discussion surrounding the reduction was prompted by a recommendation by Superintendent Reuben Duncan, who during budget discussions initially proposed decreasing the proposed budget by about $250,000.

“We’ve met with some people in the community, we’ve had some conversations here, and internally we’ve gone back to the table with the feedback that has come to us,” Duncan said. “We know this budget is a tough number.”

While Duncan said the budget had been crafted with “absolute needs” in mind, he said he was proposing the elimination of two potential new positions – an out-of-district and preschool coordinator and a second elementary school assistant principal, where currently a single position is shared between Rindge Memorial School and Jaffrey Grade School. Duncan said the roles of those positions were still important, but some of them could be distributed in different ways among existing staff and administration.

Duncan did advocate for keeping a third new proposed position, which is a $40,000 additional paraprofessional.

While School Board member Charles Eicher’s proposal of a $279,000 cut encompasses the proposed $135,000 salary for the proposed elementary assistant principal, $104,000 for the pre-kindergarten and out-of-district coordinator and $40,000 for a new paraprofessional for Jaffrey Grade School, he clarified that the cuts need not be to those proposed positions.

Eicher said he was proposing a “bottom line” number, and where those cuts came from would be a matter for the district’s administration.

“I support this motion, particularly because it’s in the spirit of compromise,” board member Forbes Farmer said. “And if it helps us avoid going on a default budget, which I hope it does, I’m all for it.”

The board unanimously agreed to the reduction in the proposed budget, 6-0.

Other articles on the warrant

The board also discussed three other monetary articles proposed, and ultimately approved all of them for the 2023 warrant unchanged, and with unanimous recommendation.

The articles include a three-year agreement with the Jaffrey-Rindge Support Staff Association, which modified the final year of the existing agreement and extends it an additional two years. The estimated increases of the agreement are $123,972 in the coming year, $195,673 in 2024-2025, and $202,113 in 2025-2026.

The board also unanimously recommended a proposed warrant to raise through taxation $400,000 for the building maintenance capital reserve fund, after the fund was nearly depleted in the prior year, mainly due to ventilation improvements for the high school woodshop.

The fund is proposed to make upgrades to windows and doors in the district, including increasing accessibility, among other improvements.

The last monetary article on the ballot this year is a request to use $150,000 from the unexpended fund balance from the current year to be put into the special education contingency fund. The fund is used for unexpected costs related to special education, such as when a student moves into the district and needs services that require extra staffing or out-of-district placement.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.

]]>