Update 2/6/2017-SAU61 Deliberative Session Saturday lasted five hours this time. Concerned citizens were able to stop several attempts to massively cut funding(one for 1 million in cuts and one for 500K in cuts) to the schools, educators and students of our school system. It was close though. As personal citizens, the Town Administrator Arthur Capello and Charlie King, Chairman of the Select Board, proposed the large cuts. We need support during the election in March & town meeting for many things including the schools & library. Time to step up everyone.
Residents of the Town of Farmington are hereby notified to meet at the Farmington High School, 40 Thayer Drive, in Farmington, NH on Saturday, February 4, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. to discuss and amend, if required, the 2017-2018 School District Budget and Warrant Articles. Voting, Session #2 will be held on Tuesday, March 14, 2017, from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Town Hall. The public is encouraged to attend.
The School Board approved a budget of $16,217,851 (tax impact $3.14).
The
Budget Committee reduced that amount to $15,850,889 (tax impact $2.31)
This is the number that will appear on the Warrant, unless it is
amended at the Deliberative Session.
Most
of the money targeted by the Budget Committee dealt with personnel.
While the School Board favors rewarding our educators for their hard
work and dedication to our schools and our students, many members of the
Budget Committee seek to treat personnel as toss away, hired hands, and
clearly resents paying and treating our educators like the professionals
that they are.
They
will seek to force the school to continue low pay and part time
employment of our dedicated educators. Please help us stop them!
1. Come to the School Deliberative Session.
The deliberative session is on Saturday, February 4, at 9:00 AM, at the High School.
We
need a bunch of folks to show up at the deliberative session
and amend the budget to put the money back so our budget can go to the
voters intact. We need support to drum up folks for the deliberative
session, and for support for the warrants in March. We have a budget,
the teacher contract, and the maintenance Workers Contract to pass.
2. Call, Write or Email the Budget Committee and School Board Members
Both
boards need to understand your feelings about our schools, and our
town. Applaud the School Board for its decisions to get our schools back
on track and put our district in the top 10% of New Hampshire Schools
in the next 10 years. This is the only way we will attract families and
businesses to our town.
The School Board will use your positive support to move even further towards progress.
The
Budget Committee will use your negative support to understand how the
townsfolk feel about the education of our children and investments in our
community.
