CORNISH — With the student body continuing to grow at Cornish Elementary School, voters at the annual meeting for the town’s school district on Saturday found little to fault in a $3.56 million operating budget that adds a full-time teacher and a part-time foreign-language teacher to the faculty.
During the hour-long gathering, one voice among about 120 residents in the school’s gymnasium answered “no” to acting moderator Troy Simino’s call for dissenting votes from the floor for the spending plan, which is up $156,000 from the 2018-19 budget. School Board Chairman Justin Ranney estimated that the increase would cost property taxpayers about 14 cents more per $1,000 of assessed value.
The nearest the session came to a debate emerged over the need for a teacher to restart the school’s world-language program for seventh- and eighth-graders with one hour of classroom time four days a week. After one voter asked whether students with an interest in languages could simply use free online materials, Principal Jennifer Prileson replied that such content is designed mostly for practice after class or at home, supplementing what students learn directly from teachers.
“Research indicates that language acquisition is not that successful without at least some live instruction,” Prileson said. “It just doesn’t stick that well.”
Overall, the K-8 school, where enrollment swelled from 81 students at the start of 2016-17 to 96 at the start of the current academic year, will pay its teachers — including 12 full-timers — a total of $577,040, up 14 percent from the current academic year. School board member Alexys Wilbur noted that the hiring of an additional, part-time educational assistant, for about $17,000, should help the school stop a recent drop in reading scores.
Among budget reductions helping to offset the increases, the district will be paying about $11,000 less in tuition for the estimated 54 Cornish residents attending neighboring high schools. The school district also foresees spending about $25,000 less on special education at all grade levels during 2019-20, $25,000 less on outside contractors for guidance services and about $6,500 less on substitute teachers.
During an interview after the district meeting, Prileson pointed to Cornish’s adoption of full-day kindergarten as a boost to enrollment.
“Those first kids are moving up, which is why we need another teacher for when we divide up the first- and second-grade classroom,” Prileson said. “We should be able to maintain our enrollment in the 90s or more for the foreseeable future.”
Prileson added that word seems to be getting around among parents of small children about Cornish’s attention to kindergarten and pre-K students, including an assortment of after-school programs for that age group.
“We’re offering a lot more for families,” the principal said. “The investment is definitely paying off.”
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com and at 603-727-3304.