Concord School Board Scraps Full-Day K Plan

CONCORD, NH — After extensive debate, a number of public hearings, support from both sides of the argument, and even Concord’s state Senator sending citywide mailers urging residents to attend school board meetings to support the program, the school board on March 29, 2017, unanimously voted against a full-day kindergarten program for the district.

Members were clearly torn by the request for $1.2 million in permanent, new spending to expand the program that some parents desired while beleaguered property taxpayers countered that they believed they were already paying high school district taxes. State Sen. Dan Feltes, D-Concord, an advocate of the program in his 2014 campaign, even sent mailers to voters around the city, urging them to come out and support the program.

Earlier this week, the district floated a paid program to expand the program – the city currently offers a half-day program – and noted that a number of other districts in the state charged tuition for the full-day K program but decided against that idea, too.

The budget does call for three teachers eliminated at the elementary level and 1.6 FTEs at Concord High School while a 1 FTE ELL teacher will be added at the Mill Brook School.

The board will also use a $9 million bond to convert CHS, Rundlett, Abbot-Downing, and Christa McAuliffe to natural gas instead of steam, in the wake of the Concord Steam bankruptcy.

Taxes will also rise but the exact percentage was not know at post time.

The full preliminary budget is online here.