MANCHESTER, N.H. – With a current expectation that the Manchester School District will have to make up $14 million in revenue for its Fiscal Year 2027 budget, the Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) was in agreement on Monday night that communicating this shortfall is going to be important in upcoming months, even if the method and scope of that communication was a point of contention.
In a voice vote, the BOSC supported the concept of public forums on the budget set at dates to be determined this spring. The timeframe of the forums was recommended to coincide between the release of MSD Superintendent Jenn Chmiel’s budget proposal on Feb. 18 at a scheduled BOSC meeting and Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais’ budget proposal presented to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) in late March.
Chmiel told the board that budget expectations would likely be more concrete by Jan. 15, 2026 when city government budget revenue and expenditure projections become available. That data would be tied in with reviews from school principals and district department heads to be transformed into the Feb. 18 presentation, which would be finalized on Feb. 3 and presented for recommendation by the BOSC Committee on Finance and Facilities on Feb. 11.
The proposal to seek more community participation in the process came from Ward 4 BOSC Member Leslie Want, fearing that a repeat of the BMA approving MSD budgets below tax cap limits as it has during the last two years and likely cuts in state aid in the future would cause serious harm to the district. In the Dec. 9 BOSC Meeting agenda, she requested that the superintendent hold a series of meetings before the end of February 2026 to explain the scope, reasons and potential harm that the district faces in the coming budget season without an expectation of solutions to be provided at those meetings.
“Due to the enormous budget shortfall we are facing as a result of not receiving our tax cap-compliant budget last spring, I believe it is necessary to share publicly with the community the budgetary headwinds we are facing and help everyone, elected officials included, understand the difficulty we are facing to properly fund our children’s education,” said Want in a statement placed in the agenda.
Want told the board that her expectation was MSD officials would provide basic information prior to the budget process in meetings with the public, comparable to former MSD Superintendent Bolgen Vargas in the late 2010s.
“Taxpayers want to understand if we are falling short, why is that, what’s going on, and have input,” she said during Monday’s meeting, adding that she hoped for two to four such forums.
Ward 9 BOSC Member Bob Baines felt that it was inappropriate for the forums to occur before Chmiel releases her recommendations on Feb. 18, stating that she and her team would go before the public with nothing to say given that their budget preparation would not yet be complete, leading to people potentially seeing the lack of finalized information as obfuscation or possibly fill in gaps with facts that are incorrect or needlessly harmful to the district’s purpose of educating Manchester’s children, a point that Manchester May Jay Ruais agreed with.
“The only thing worse than not being transparent is being transparent with no information,” said Ruais.
Baines also questioned the efficacy of public meetings, noting the possibility that people may not attend them and that the primary audience should be members of the BMA, not the public.
“I don’t know if going into a school and having half-a-dozen people show up would be worth our time, “said Baines.
Chmiel requested that if meetings occur that they be pushed into March due to the amount of effort needed to produce the proposed budget and subsequent presentation, but stated that she does want to increase the level of public outreach in 2026 regarding the budget process.
While the everyone on the board supported the idea of increased awareness surrounding the proposed budget next year, there were other ideas for achieving that goal in addition to Baines’ and Want’s pathways.
Ward 1 BOSC Member Julie Turner felt hat many parents are too busy for meetings. Ward 9 BOSC Member Jess Spillers asked if the effort could be focused on social media outreach. Ward 2 BOSC Member Sean Parr asked if the outreach could go out through text messages, also adding that the meetings could be presented as the beginning of a new tradition rather than a one-time emergency event.
“When you have an event where people learn things and advocate for things, it’s still something even if (they don’t say) what you want,” said Parr.
Ward 5 BOSC Member Jason Bonilla wondered if the forums could be rolled into potential future “School Connect” events. None of these events designed to provide updates, resources, Q&As and student showcases are yet scheduled for 2026, a pilot version of the event took place in Ward 1 and another is scheduled at Beech Street Elementary School at Thursday, Dec. 11 at 5 p.m.
Baines made a motion to table the proposal before the final vote for outreach efforts during that recommended timeframe took place, with the timeline added through a friendly amendment by Turner. Baines’ motion failed on an 8-5 roll call vote. Baines was joined by Ruais, Ward 3 BOSC Member Karen Soule, Ward 10 BOSC Member Joy Senecal, Ward 12 BOSC Member Carlos Gonzalez. Every other member voted against tabling the motion except for Ward 6 BOSC Member Dan Bergeron and Ward 11 BOSC Member Liz O’Neill, both of whom were absent.
