MANCHESTER, NH – The Manchester School District has long expected a difficult budget season this year and that season has finally come.
Manchester School District Superintendent Jennifer Chmiel on Wednesday night presented five separate scenarios on how the district would find the approximately $15 million in cuts required if the tax cap compliant budget is approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
This $15 million amount does not include the potential $10 million in cuts in state adequacy aid following a cap on aid that could begin this year if current legislation in Concord removing the cap is not signed into law.
During the Feb. 11 meeting, the Manchester Board of School Committee Finance and Facilities Committee unanimously recommended three separate proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budgets move forward to the full Board of School Committee following a discussion that presented a grim picture for the district’s future without a significant budgetary boost.
Although Chmiel is only required to present a budget compliant with Manchester’s tax cap, most years there is the presentation of a tax cap compliant budget as well as what is known as a “needs budget,” which district leadership believes presents a number that accurately represents the school district’s needs to properly fulfill its educational mission. In Wednesday’s overview, there was a third budget in between these two budgets referred to as the baseline budget that would allow the district to maintain expenditures at current levels following the end of one-time funds following the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in state adequacy aid and two straight years of receiving budgets beneath tax cap compliant maximums.
The needs budget, which in this year’s budget presentation was referred to as the “fully funded” budget, was announced at an amount of $265,290,706.
The baseline budget was put at an amount of $251,405,787.
The tax cap compliant budget was set at an amount of $235,507,700. This amount assumes that the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen will approve the maximum 3% revenue and expenditure increase allowable under the city’s tax cap without an override vote approved by 10 of 14 members on the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
In the five scenarios, options such as not providing bus service to students living within two miles of schools, reintroducing fees for high school students to use buses, instituting “pay-to-play” policies for school sports teams, lifting limits on the district’s class size maximums or delaying debt repayment on bonds for Phase One of the district’s facility plan were examined, among other possibilities. Unlike the situation with the current fiscal year budget, where layoffs were avoided through “attrition,” or simply just not replacing retiring staff, all five of the plans required some level of layoffs ranging from 42 to 113 positions.
Some recommendations, such as modifying the bell schedule to reduce school bus mileage and using $1.5 million from the district’s teaching and learning trust, were recommended in all of the scenarios.
Chmiel told the board that none of the options were beneficial to the school district and were presented due to the fact that the superintendent is required to present a tax cap compliant budget under the city charter.
Response to the situation from members of the Finance and Facilities Committee as well as other members of the Board of School Committee not on Finance and Facilities that attended the meeting was uniformly pessimistic and expressed frustration at the prospect of severe cuts required due to forces outside of their control. Those forces include inconsistent federal funding in recent months, what was described as decades of underfunding from the state and the previous two years of local budgets approved by the Aldermen coming in under what was requested by the Board of School Committee.
“I was speechless when I had the preview of this (budget) last week, I’m still at a loss for words,” said Ward 1 Board of School Committee Member Julie Turner.
Ward 7 Board of School Committee Member Chris Potter noted that the combined reductions from the Board of School Committee’s recommended budgets at tax cap compliant maximums over the past two years was roughly equivalent to the difference between this year’s tax cap compliant budget and the baseline budget, adding this made sense that tax cap maximums as merely amounts that keep up with inflation each year since that is how the maximums are calculated and thus anything below the maximum is technically a budget cut.
Ward 5 Board of School Committee Member Jeff Taylor asked if increasing the radius of no bus service for students living within two miles of schools from the current radius of 1.5 miles would create dangerous situations for students, particularly during winter months. District leaders did not have an immediate answer on this question, but indicated that exceptions could provided in certain hazardous areas.
Several members also noted that the tax impact to Manchester residents when it comes to schools has been minimal in recent years, with the amount of grant funding and state aid in the previous fiscal year’s budget allowing a tax decrease in school-related taxes for Manchester residents.
Following a vote by the full Board of School Committee on these three proposed amounts as well the district leadership’s proposed school food and nutrition services budget ($6,300,000) and the recommended capital improvement plan amount ($7,850,000), the finalized recommendations will be presented to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, with the mayor required by city charter to also present a tax cap compliant budget by the end of March, with the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
The presentation as well budget books from this year and last year showing proposed salaries and other line items can be found below.