Proposed Claremont school budget up 7%, even with cuts to pre-K

By PATRICK O’GRADY

Valley News Correspondent

Published: 01-13-2025 6:00 PM

CLAREMONT — The School Board is proposing a 2025-26 budget with an increase of nearly 7% from the current budget.

The increase — nearly $2.5 million — is driven primarily by higher health and dental insurance costs, an increase in out-of-district tuition and the first year of a proposed contract for teachers.

The board voted unanimously last week to send the $38.9 million spending plan to a public hearing that is scheduled for Wednesday.

“The majority of increases you are seeing are the uncontrollables,” SAU 6 Superintendent Chris Pratt told the board at last week’s School Board meeting. “We cannot just not pay them or reduce them.”

Anything tied to benefits such as health insurance, as well as out-of-district tuition for special education students cannot be cut from the budget, Pratt said.

To help offset a potential tax increase, the district plans to eliminate some teaching positions and the in-classroom pre-K program.

Health and dental insurance increases added $1.22 million to expenses and expected out-of-district tuition added another $1.48 million to the budget, SAU 6 Business Administrator Mary Henry said.

While a portion of the out-of-district tuition was previously paid using federal COVID-related funds that are no longer available, the district is still obligated to pay those costs.

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The budget also includes the first year of a proposed new teachers’ contract, which requires $514,000 for salary increases.

Non-tax revenues of more than $2 million reduces the tax impact, Henry said, including a $1.9 million “Extraordinary Need Grant” from the state.

If voters approve the budget and two separate warrant articles for contracts with paraprofessionals and administrators in March as currently presented, it would add 62 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to the school portion of the tax rate.

That would result in a $142 in additional education taxes on a property assessed at $230,000.

Before voting unanimously to approve the budget for a public hearing, the board debated at length the decision to eliminate the pre-K program for special education students, which cut almost $440,000 from the budget through the elimination of two teaching positions and 4.35 paraprofessional positions.

Board members and administrators agreed that pre-K can be a valuable program to help students prepare for kindergarten and beyond, but they said the district’s program is not producing the results expected.

There has been concern about the program for several years, said Board Vice Chairman Frank Sprague, a member of the finance subcommittee of the board that developed the budget.

“We were given data indicating the program in its current form does not show substantial gains from any of the participants,” Sprague said. “The committee is not denying for a second that pre-K can be a beneficial intervention; however it has to be quality intervention and needs to have an organized format, none of which we as a board are seeing evidence of.”

The program cost cannot be justified for the number of students is serves when it is not producing the gains the district needs, said Board Chairwoman Heather Whitney, who also served on the finance subcommittee.

“Almost a half million dollars serving 23 students ... for a program that could not be accessed by every public school child simply did not seem like an appropriate way to use tax dollars,” Whitney said.

Whitney said an alternative proposal to cut the district’s instructional coaches and curriculum director would have been a step backward in efforts to improve education for all K-12 students.

“It flies in the face of what we are trying to do,” Whitney said.

Board member Arlene Hawkins, a former educator at the elementary school level, read a statement opposing the elimination of pre-K. Hawkins said the district has an obligation to “invest in younger children and be their advocates” because it sets the stage for their success later in school.

“Quality pre-K provides a foundation for future growth of all students,” Hawkins said. “I believe eliminating pre-K is shortsighted.”

Hawkins acknowledged the shortcomings of the current program but said the focus should be on improving it, not eliminating it.

While the board did not restore the cut, it agreed to continue looking into creating a program that is available to more children and achieves better outcomes.

Wednesday’s hearing begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Sugar River Valley Technical Center.

Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.