$17.9M School Budget Draws Praise

There was definitely a strong mood in the air at Thursday night's Hampton Budget Committee meeting, although unlike some other municipal and school meetings this year, that mood was comprised of gushing unanimous positivity.

The committee heaped overwhelming praise on the Hampton School Board and administrators and staff for crafting one of the "most detailed budget books" they've ever seen and a proposed $17,864,500 budget that is $456,442 or 2.49 percent lower than the current year.

"Going into a new SAU had a fear factor in it," said committee Chairwoman Eileen Latimer. "It had a tremendous unknown... and it was like taking that leap of faith. I credit this board with making that leap... I'd like other boards to see that when you have a plan and you have committment, this is the result."

SAU 90 Superintendent Kathleen Murphy and Business Administrator Nate Lunney said they greatly appreciated the Hampton Budget Committee's gushing over the hard work.

They each largely attributed that hard work to the efforts of the district's staff and the school board to not only pour over all possible cost savings, but to also preemptively scrutinize over every small detail in order to eliminate uncertainties about individual line items and appropriations.

"It's incredible," said Murphy of the feedback. "A budget is probably the most important thing a leadership team is in charge of. If all your ducks are in a row, the community will support it."

That's precisely what Murphy, Lunney and Latimer said they hope will happen now that the Hampton Budget Committee has unanimously approved the .

Questions were asked about the budget Thursday, including some about the district's decision to remove the family consumer sciences position — a position which is vacant this year — from the 2012-2013 budget.

Murphy said middle school curriculum is "changing," and several new curriculum efforts focused on engineering, robotics and other newer sciences will "better prepare" students, thus eliminating the need to carry the vacant position forward.

She also said a portion of the family consumer sciences curriculum has been tied in with other subjects, including the use of ovens and cooking in a science class. Some budget committee members said they were concerned about the lack of the program, although as a whole they said they were pleased with the district's proposal.

"I went through it page by page down each line and I don't really have a problem with anything," said Mike Pierce, who serves as the selectmen's representative to the committee. "It is a first."

The budget presented Thursday didn't include the school district's proposed warrant articles.

Lunney said, though, that the budget is still less than this year's budget — which is the default school budget — after adding in articles for the teacher and paraprofessional contracts, among other things.

"Part of our achieved goal was to hit savings to fund those articles," said Lunney. "Our intent is to show that on the entire school ballot, if you vote 'yes' on every article down the line [at town meeting], you'll still spend almost $200,000 less than you did by voting 'no' last year."

The district will present a detailed breakdown of the warrant articles at the next Hampton Budget Committee meeting, which is at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 12, at .

After that, the budget along with the rest of the Hampton-related budgets will go before the annual public hearing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at Hampton Academy.