MANCHESTER, N.H. – As part of Tuesday’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen packet, any referendum “turning back the clock” on the Manchester School District to its status in relation to the City of Manchester before the current City Charter came into effect in July 1997 would have a nominal impact at best.
The concept for a referendum was proposed by Board of Mayor and Alderman Chair Joseph Kelly Levasseur, who sought to modify a request by Ward 6 Alderman Crissy Kantor to make the Manchester School District a department of the city. Kantor asked the board to advance the referendum process forward without review by Aldermanic committees first. That request did not find support, so Levasseur later made a motion for the concept to go before the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen Committee on Administration and Information Systems’ May meeting. There, Levasseur proposed that the Manchester School District’s role revert to its role as a department prior to the 1997 Charter, but no one was quite sure what that exactly meant.
Thus, tasked with going back in time and determining the impact and legality of the proposed change and just what exactly voters would be voting on with Levasseur’s request, Manchester City Clerk Matt Normand and Manchester Citty Solicitor Emily Rice returned with answers.
In Normand’s letter to the Aldermen, he summarized that there is no appreciable difference in the school district’s role in the current charter that was approved in 1997 and the one before that which was approved in 1983. The only changes he found added in the new charter regarding the school district were the expansion of the School Committee, now called the Board of School Committee, from 12 to 14 members; as well as reaffirming the Board of Mayor and Aldermen’s role in approving the school district budget as a single line item and that the Mayor of Manchester has veto authority over any budget line item.
From Normand's letter: "In summary, there is no appreciable difference between the two charters as it relates to the school district. There is no section of the 1983 City Charter that represents the district as a department; in fact, the 1997 City Charter expanded the seats on the Board of School Committee from twelve members to fourteen members (at-large positions), reiterated that the school district budget shall constitute a single line item, yet gave future mayors the ability to veto all acts of the aldermen including actions related to the entire budget or any line item thereof, for the first time."
Rice’s letter came to a similar conclusion, noting that under New Hampshire Revised Statute Annotated (NH RSA) Chapter 45:9, the mayor already has authority over the municipal budget format and procedures and adoption of the budget, something echoed in Chapter 2.08 of the 1997 Charter.
She also reiterated the Aldermanic role in approving the school district’s budget mentioned by Normand, which is described through several areas of Chapter 6 of the 1997 Charter. Additionally, she noted that the city and school district were incorporated as separate municipal corporations (per NH RSA 33:1), and the school district becoming a department of the city would not change that fact.
“It does not appear that seeking to amend the Charter to make the (Manchester) School District a department of City (of Manchester’s) government would be an effective means of attempting to add to the City’s significant existing authority over the School District budget,” said Rice in her letter. “Any such amendment would be subject to both the numerous controlling statutes and administrative rules governing the authority and responsibilities of local school boards, school districts, and superintendents.”
The item lies as the 20th out of 30 agenda items on Tuesday’s Aldermanic agenda. The letters from Solicitor Rice and Clerk Normand are below: