MANCHESTER, N.H. – While the mandate to do whatever possible to retain staff positions was the top focal point at the May 11th, 2026 Manchester Board of School Committee meeting, there was another topic just as contentious that would have dominated attention on almost any other meeting night.
In an 8-6 vote, the Board of School Committee voted to table a decision on crafting an open enrollment policy likely ensuring that no policy is enacted in time for the 2026-’27 school year.
The policy proposal was brought forward by Manchester School District Executive Director of Legal and Policy Matt Upton following legislation earlier this year from Concord allowing families to enroll their children in public school districts other than their home district. This concerned Upton due to the shift it would cause in where state aid is allocated, as he stated that Manchester would effectively lose approximately $10,000 for most students heading to other school districts.
He went on to tell the board that since the legislation went into effect, 103 public school districts across the state decided to enact policies regarding open enrollment, with 93 of those districts setting the policy to allow no students in and no students out beyond existing state laws allowing families to enroll their students in other school districts after paying tuition.
While Upton told the board that he tried to wait as long as possible to see if there would be any changes on the implementation of the policy from Concord, time had run out as a policy would need to be in place by July 1 in order to be in effect for the upcoming school year.
Members on the board uniformly expressed their dislike of the new state law, feeling that it was intended to create budget and class size instability for public schools and a multi-tiered educational system where families that cannot afford transportation to other school districts would become trapped in underfunded school districts.
Although Upton noted that several nearby school districts had adopted this policy, Manchester Board of School Committee Chair Jim O’Connell also noted that no adjacent school districts other than Goffstown had adopted this policy. O’Connell felt that it was important to stand against the concept of open enrollment given what he saw as its supporters’ intention to oppose public education.
“This is taxation without representation,” he said. “Your money goes out of town and you have nothing to say about it.”
O’Connell also stated that if the policy were passed, it could complicate future budget negotiations with the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
Upton also noted that an open enrollment policy could become advantageous if parents from other municipalities see sending their child to Manchester as advantageous for district-specific programs such as dual-language immersion education or various unique vocational programs at Manchester School of Technology. However, members of the board who did support taking in open enrollment students felt that it was disingenuous to take in students while not allowing students to leave.
Supporters of Upton’s idea didn’t necessarily like the idea, but feared what an unpredictable number of inbound and outbound students could have on the district, particularly given the approximate $16 million gap predicted in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget.
“This is not the year to make decisions based on ideology,” said Ward 7 Board of School Committee Member Chris Potter.
The vote to table the decision was supported by O’Connell, Julie Turner (Ward 1), Sean Parr (Ward 2), Dan Bergeron (Ward 6), Board of School Committee Stan Garrity (Ward 9), Gary Hamer (Ward 10), Liz O’Neil-Wong (Ward 11) and Mayor Ruais. Opposition came from Potter, Sarah Georges (Ward 3), Leslie Want (Ward 4), Jeff Taylor (Ward 5), Nicholas St. George (Ward 8) and Cindy Stewart (At-Large).
Later in the meeting, a vote to reverse the decision to table a proposed change to school district start times inspired a request to pull the open enrollment. On this vote, support came from Turner, Taylor, Bergeron, Potter, St. John and Stewart with the other eight board members in attendance opposing. Julie Smith of Ward 12 was absent for both votes.