Letter to the Editor: Regarding Claremont’s school budget

The Claremont School Board, for the first time in a number of years, is in a position where painful cuts to the budget are not necessary. For the most part this is due to the tireless efforts of school boards, administrations and other elected officials from numerous nearby communities applying pressure to our elected state officials to begin repair on a broken school funding system. The New Hampshire Legislature and Senate were able to negotiate substantial ‘one-time money’ for many school districts. The intent of this money was to literally stop the bleeding caused by the systematic phasing out of stabilization funds, loss of building aid, cuts to special education aid and woefully inadequate funding by the State. Some have suggested that this is taxpayer money and it all should be returned to them. However, when Gov. Sununu presented “the check,” he clearly stated that this money should be used to correct deferred maintenance and to repair damage to opportunities for student learning caused by ongoing budget cuts.

A no vote on Articles 2, 6, or 7 will result in a substantial tax reduction, that is not in question, but for the 2020-2021 school year only. It is still necessary to provide opportunities for students, pay our employees, and repair and replace our assets. Tax relief will be short-lived as substantial increases in the next several years will occur as the issues that these warrants propose to address are not going away.

A no vote on Articles 3, 4, or 5 will prove costly as employees with keep their prohibitively expensive Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance.

The Claremont School Board asks that the school budget be supported in its entirety. In spite of the ambitious nature of this year’s budget, it does represent a 56-cent decrease when compared to the 2019-2020 budget.

Additional details regarding the budget are available on the district’s website.

Frank W. Sprague

Claremont, NH