BudCom Approves N. Hampton School Warrant

The North Hampton Budget Committee stamped it's support on the proposed $7.75 million budget and approved five other warrant articles on Tuesday, officially setting most of the school warrant for the upcoming budget public hearing.

The operating budget, which is 2.26 percent higher than the current year when cost-saving reductions in debt service aren't factored in, received a 9-0 vote from board members, although two union contracts received split votes because they represent additional increases to the bottom line.

Business Administrator Bill Hickey said the first year of a two-year deal with the Seacoast Education Association — the teachers union — will cost $64,956, while the first year of a three-year deal with the Seacoast Educational Support Professionals Association — the paraprofessionals union — will cost roughly $12,000.

Both outline salary and benefits increases as well as increased prescription drug and other insurance costs for employees, and Richard Garnett, Michael Golden and David Peck were the dissenting members during each contract's 6-3 vote Tuesday.

Peck said he didn't oppose the contracts, although he said he "couldn't support" them in the context of the overall budget since the budget itself — which is roughly $85,000 less than the default — is already higher than the original 1.5- and 2-percent increase caps originally proposed by the committee.

"I'd like to be able to support both, but no way can I support a 3.3 percent increase," said Peck, speaking of the budget bottom line adjusted to include the contracts. "The majority of the group is saying the operating budget is what it is, but I can't support it with the [collective bargaining agreements]."

Rick Stanton and others said, though, that the teachers "deserve a raise," especially since they said it's a small amount when added insurance and retirement costs are taken into account.

There were proposals Tuesday to possibly have the school district cut 1 percent from the budget to help mitigate the contracts' impact, although there was no official motion for the idea because Jim Maggiore and others said there isn't "enough time" to make those kind of changes.

"I support this because I feel we need to support our teachers," said Maggiore, the selectmen's representative on the budget committee, of the contracts. "We said at the last meeting that 2.26 [percent] is what we can live with. We'll have to let the voters decide to accept the [operating budget] and if they can afford a raise."

A resident named Tamara Le spoke out Tuesday against one of the cuts already made to the budget, stating that she'd like to see funding added to restore a full-time occupational therapist position — which was cut as part of a recent $163,322 reduction — rather than see the committee make additional cuts.

Le said the district "will never find" a replacement for Lorraine Johnson by shifting to a contracted OT, and said the "knee-jerk cut" will do more in the long-term as officials try to "achieve a budget utopia."

"I had hoped in your discussions this evening to revisit [that portion of] the budget," she said. "Throwing away a treasure is not what we do or who we are in North Hampton."

That area of the budget wasn't revisited Tuesday, though, and the cut moved forward with the budget committee's recommendation, as did three trust fund articles.

Those articles, all of which were unanimously approved, would allocate money into contingency funds for health insurance, special education and building maintenance — in that order — if excess money is available at the end of the year.

Only one warrant article now remains one week before the 7 p.m. public hearing on Jan. 10 at the school. That article, Article 4, calls for a yet-to-be-determined amount of money to purchase a two-acre property to the east of the Atlantic Avenue school for its use in a future project of some kind.

Budget committee members said they had hoped to have official numbers for the purchase Tuesday, although an agreement still hasn't been reached between the district and the property owner.

Article 4 was tabled, and it's possible it may be stricken from the warrant on Jan. 10. It's also possible that budget figures can be changed by the budget committee during or after the public hearing.