Tonight (Wednesday) the Budget Committee could only find $96,145 in reductions to the proposed budget that was presented at the Public Hearing. The amended amount passed on a 5-2 vote. School Board Budget $24,504,702 was reduced to $24,408,702 (Budget Committee Budget) The vote was 4-3.
Cindy Martin and Rick Hiland tried get a $400,000 reduction but could not get any support as it unfortunately failed on a 2-5 vote.
WA #4 BEA contract of $356,310 passed on a 4-3 vote.
WA #6 the School Traffic and Parking article for $60,500 (3rd year of the 3 year plan originally) passed on a 7-0 vote.
WA #7 the school phone system for $95,000 passed on a 5-2 vote.
WA # 8 the BHS track surface for $90,000 passed on a 5-2 vote.
These were all final votes and the results now go to School Meeting on March 13th.
Cutting only $96,145 is an insult to all those people who went to the public school budget hearing. I will be voting with Cindy and Rick to remove $400,000 from the school budget.
More detail on this article from a contributor:
Paul,
I went to the Budget Committee meeting tonight and just stayed through the two biggies. I don’t know if you have some other source for this information. Other than Pansy Bloomfield, there was only one other guy in the audience, seemingly taking a lot of notes. Maybe it was you? Anyway …..
The Committee voted 4 (DeVasto, Abrams, McCann and Kenison) to 3 (Cheney, Martin and Hiland) to recommend a final budget of $24,408,702, a reduction of $96,145 from what was presented on Feb. 11. Cindy and Rick proposed a $400,000 cut but were defeated. The cuts come primarily from a $50,000 reduction in the contingencies fund (from $75-25K), recalculation of diesel and gas fuel prices based on current prices (big risk there, I think), reducing non-contract worker COLA from 3.5 to 2.25%, and cutting some “co-curricular program” expenses.
There was some discussion that the Budget Committee’s practice to award the same COLA for school district personnel as is given to the other town employees. I think it was Leon who said he understands the Selectmen are considering a 0% COLA for town employees, and it was noted in discussion there would be hell to pay if the school employees received a COLA but town employees did not.
There was discussion that the Committee and School Board know the school population will continue to decrease and that some teacher jobs will probably be eliminated in each of the next several years to come. However it was very apparent that the schools are, indeed, viewed as some sort of perfect product (or temple or Mecca) and that every effort is being made to promote that image (mirage?) for as long as possible that. It was clear they are in no hurry to take any significant moves to trim the budget, that they are in no hurry to eliminate more positions or any programs even though they know the schools are in decline.
From your e-mails
Paul
Well …. sad to say…..no official in Town seems to get what is
happening to the taxpayer and what the future is holding for the
Town of Bow
We need a story of……..” How to close a High school ” to wake
the Bow citizens up.
With the past warnings of ….please be careful of
spending…….the taxes still go up and no one is acting.
The large amount of $$ that pays for our High School comes from Merrimack Station (The Bow Power Plant).
If scrubber technology is not in place by 2013 the plant would be
out of compliance with State law and may be shut down.
This would have a HUGE increase to each taxpayer in the Town of
Bow,and I am POSITIVE that Concord High would be approached to see
if there would be any room for our students. Just do the math, and
you will fall off your chair on what the taxes would be by 2013-20014.
So…..keep spending up……..$$$
and my question of….”How to close a High School;” may come to pass.
Hi All,
You don’t have to send me e-mails you can get your comments on the website almost immediately all you have to do is register. Click on log in than just beneth the blue box click on register. Give yourself a user name and put in your e-mail address and we will send you a temp. password. Put once you get your temp. password come back and put in you user name and temp. password and you are good to go. Give your self a password you can remember and give us your comments.
Thank-you BCC contributor now we know who voted how. It is interesting to see Deb McCann voted to lower the school budget by about $96K. I checked on Bownet.org to see if the School Board voted on this reduction and found nothing. I don’t imagin that Deb went rogue on the school board and decided to lower it on her own. I am just wondering at what meeting this was decided at.
In this day and age I am wondering if these decisions are being made by e-mail purposely our of the eye of the public. Is it possible that some elected official to check into whether or not the school board are making dedisions by e-mail. This isnt the first time this year that the School Board has made decisions at unposted meetings.
Selectmen/ Budget Committtee can you look into this.
Yeswecan,
In one of the comments it was stated that Pansy was at the meeting which means that Deb had her marching orders. How can the school board get away with making decisions by e-mail. We need a complete change to the school board where decisions are made in the light of day.
The last 2 comments showed distrust for the school board and I am not sure that they merit this but as you can see I am new to this website and I have learned a lot and I am sure I am missing something. Can either one of the 2 previous posters explain why you don’t trust the school board?
Bowsportsfan,
NH forefathers felt it was important to keep government as transparent as possible and open to the people. NH State Law RSA 91:2 d II clarifies this. All you have to do is google NH RSAs and you can find this info out your self. If the school board are meeting by e-mail and making decisions than they are breaking the law.
The reason for distrust can be explained if you go to on bownet.org and read the Jan. 14 minutes. Please note the vote was 4-0-0 with Deb McCaann dissenting. Even when even one of them disagrees it is recorded that they agree. This to me is scary. No independence all walking in lock step, kind of 1984ish. For this reason I do not believe Deb McCann mad the decision to lower the school budget by ~$100K on her own there had to be a decision made. Lastly meetings need to be posted a few days in advance the Jan. 14 meeting was not posted in advance.
Thanks, I am still inclined to give the board the benefit of the doubt but I will check out the websites you stated, to get a better understanding of where you are coming from. Also because the budget was lowered why are you concerned? I thought you like me are supporting a lower budget?
bowsportsfan-
Sorry for jumping into your conversation but the answer to your question is quite simple. If the board is willing to break the law once to lower the budget than they can just as easily break the law by increasing the budget when no one is looking. We as watch dogs here at BCC want to be consistent with our observations.
BSF asks a good question why would the school board decide to lower the budget in sectet? Lets think about that one.