Latest news with #ManchesterSchoolDistrict
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Reports say Manchester aldermen already have 'significant authority' over school budget
New reports from the Manchester city clerk and solicitor's offices suggest making the local school district a city department wouldn't give the mayor or aldermen much more power over the school budget then they already have. The reports appear as an agenda item for Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, scheduled for 7 p.m. at City Hall. An effort to ask Manchester voters if they support making the school district a department of the city, a topic debated on and off for decades, was given new life recently when Mayor Jay Ruais broke a 7-7 tie to send a request to look at either making the Manchester School District a city department or granting the mayor the power to set the district's budget to the aldermen for study, ahead of possible placement on the November election ballot. While the school district isn't a city department, aldermen must approve its budget. For the matter to appear on a municipal ballot this November, aldermen need to take a final vote on the matter by Tuesday, June 3. City Clerk Matt Normand and City Solicitor Emily Rice were asked to research the topic ahead of a vote on the matter, with the understanding that the goal was to give the mayor more say over the school budget, including line-item veto power. In her report, Rice writes that she investigated the issue through the lens of establishing authority of the aldermen over the budget of the Manchester School District. 'It is the opinion of this office that the Mayor and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) possess significant authority in this regard under both the current charter and applicable state law,' Rice writes. Rice points out the mayor has 'extensive authority over the form, procedure and adoption of the city's annual budget,' and the school district budget is subject to the approval of the BMA. 'If the BMA rejects the budget as submitted, the school committee is required to 'submit a revised budget which shall not exceed the maximum dollar amount established by the board of mayor and aldermen,'" Rice writes, quoting the city's Charter. 'The Charter contains no language which would, after rejection by the BMA, permit the submission of (a) school department budget which exceeds the maximum amount established by the BMA. 'It does not appear that seeking to amend the Charter to make the school district a department of city government would be an effective means of attempting to add to the city's significant existing authority over the school district budget.' Rice adds any such amendment would be subject to numerous controlling state statutes and administrative rules governing the authority and responsibilities of local school boards, school districts and superintendents. In a report on his on findings, Normand writes he was asked to present to the board a comparison of charter sections related to the school district within the current City Charter (known as the 1997 Charter) and the previous City Charter (known as the 1983 Charter), to the extent that the district had previously been considered a department. Normand also reviewed the 1996 Charter Commission minutes. 'It is clear that the commission was very deliberate in maintaining the same level of authority for both the district and the BMA outlined in the 1983 City Charter while making minor changes they believed would clarify responsibilities of each,' Normand writes. 'In summary, there is no appreciable difference between the two charters as it relates to the school district. There is no section of the 1983 City Charter that represents the district as a department; in fact, the 1997 City Charter expanded the seats on the Board of School Committee from twelve members to fourteen members (at-large positions), reiterated that the school district budget shall constitute a single line item, yet gave future mayors the ability to veto all acts of the aldermen including actions related to the entire budget or any line item thereof, for the first time.' Efforts to bring city schools under the umbrella of city government have fallen short over the past 20 years.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Efforts to make Manchester schools a city department get new life
An effort to ask Manchester voters if they support making the school district a department of the city — a topic debated on and off for decades — has new life. Mayor Jay Ruais broke a 7-7 tie Tuesday night when he voted to send a request — to look at either making the Manchester School District a city department or granting the mayor the power to set the district's budget — to the aldermanic Committee on Administration/Information Systems later this month, ahead of possible placement on the November election ballot. Voting in favor were aldermen Chris Morgan, Ross Terrio, Ed Sapienza, Norm Vincent, Kelly Thomas, Joe Kelly Levasseur and Crissy Kantor. Ruais said he recently spoke with the City Clerk's Office and several department heads on how such a change would impact them. 'The easiest thing to do would be, on the budget side, to give the mayor — whomever that is — budget authority,' Ruais said. 'Merging the entirety of the school district and the city beyond just the budget would require potentially 14 changes to the charter." He suggested that the administration committee come up with a recommendation about the best direction to pursue. For the matter to appear on a municipal ballot this November, aldermen will need to take a final vote by June 3. 'This would be a pretty significant lift, and I just think if we're going to do this, we should do it thoughtfully and substantively and go through the committee process,' Ruais said. Similar efforts have fallen short over the past 20 years. In April 2017, Levasseur proposed putting a question on the ballot that, if passed, would have put aldermen in charge of school finances. That motion initially passed, but a few weeks later aldermen voted to reconsider, ultimately rejecting Levasseur's original motion. Levasseur said the school district would have better supervision and oversight as a city department. More than 20 years ago, the school district filed a petition to determine whether it was a city department. According to Judge Joseph Nadeau's ruling, the 'school district functions as a substantially independent governmental entity' and was not a city department and not under the control of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. In 2001, voters passed by 4,000 votes a city charter amendment changing the school district to a city department. That amendment was later struck down by the courts, which ruled that it violated state law. The Legislature changed the law in 2003, but attempts to hold another charter vote have foundered — as in 2011, when aldermen voted against scheduling a required public hearing that would put the issue back before voters. pfeely@
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Manchester parents upset over 'power and privilege' handout
Victoria and Jonathan Faucher don't consider themselves activists. But when their eighth grade son brought home a packet on microaggressions and a 'Wheel of Power and Privilege' from school on Thursday, the Manchester couple felt they needed to take action. 'It's disturbing,' Victoria Faucher said. 'I don't see why it's necessary, and now the parents get to talk to them (students) about it and deal with it,' said Jonathan Faucher. 'Talk to them, and somehow press the reset button, even though the cat's out of the bag, right? It's unnecessary.' The Fauchers' son is in eighth grade at Henry J. McLaughlin Middle School in Manchester. The packet he brought home Thursday was titled 'Cultural Fluency 2.0: Microaggressions,' distributed by Grade 8 Language Arts teacher Jennifer Doucette. The packet was distributed in connection with a unit on the Holocaust, though it includes no mention of the mass murder of Jews by German Nazis during World War II. School officials say the packet contained some materials intended only for staff development. Microaggressions are defined by Merriam Webster as 'a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group (such as a racial minority).' The packet contains a list of examples 'offered for reflection' of possible microaggressions, such as failing to learn to pronounce or continuing to mispronounce the names of students after they have corrected you; using the terms 'illegals' to reference undocumented students, or continuing to misuse pronouns after a student — transgender or not — indicates their preferred gender pronoun. The packet also contained a 'Wheel of Power and Privilege,' listing cultural identifiers — such as White, middle class or citizen — and the degree of power and privilege associated with each. Students could circle cultural identifiers on the wheel they felt matched up with them, and learn what category the wheel places them in: most power, marginalized or most marginalized. Jonathan Faucher said the 'Wheel of Power and Privilege' was especially concerning to his family and his son's circle of friends. 'It's a good group,' Faucher said. 'It's very multicultural, and they all play sports together, they're all good friends. They have been for years, but now they're looking at each other differently, and for what? Because my son's a white French Canadian, so now he has White privilege. My son's friends, other cultures, they're filling it out, and they're marginalized. My son fills it out, and he has privilege. 'How could this possibly be allowed in a public school district?' District's response On Friday, the Manchester School District issued a statement saying it is 'aware of social media posts regarding a classroom lesson in one of our schools.' The district said it has reviewed the matter with the building principal, and while officials said they couldn't address personnel matters directly, 'we could share the lesson was in fact part of a unit on the Holocaust,' as required in state minimum standards. 'We understand that this topic can create reactions and conversations within our classrooms,' the statement said. 'In this isolated incident, students were asked to complete an anonymous self-reflection form to explore their understanding of self to text within the unit. Unfortunately, materials intended only for staff professional development were used for this anonymous student self-reflection. 'We want to be clear that there was never a survey completed as part of this lesson or unit. The district team has taken steps so this action is not repeated.' District officials say they remain committed to providing 'age and topic appropriate' instruction for all students, and 'sometimes that includes discussion of difficult periods of history in the world.' 'However, such discussions are paramount to a well-educated and well-rounded public, and we are committed to teaching those topics in a manner that complies with both educational best practices and state and federal law.' Political respose News of the packet and 'wheel' spread Friday. State Sen. Victoria Sullivan, R-Manchester, said the power and privilege wheel sent a message to students that 'some children are better than others.' 'That is a message that should never be put upon children,' Sullivan said. 'All children are unique in their talents and abilities. Telling children that they are better than some people or are less than others based on skin color, sexuality, body size, and gender is unacceptable. 'Manchester repeatedly makes headlines for inadequate proficiency scores. Yet, this is where they are spending taxpayer dollars.' Manchester Alderman At Large Joe Kelly Levasseur said parents feel 'trapped in public schools' because of questionnaires like the one sent home. 'They make children uncomfortable and parents even more so,' Levasseur said. 'Explaining racism to non-racist children creates a problem that was never there to begin with. Manchester should focus on unity and how Americans are an amazing melting pot that brings us all together to achieve the American dream.' Jonathan Faucher said his son has friends of color that he's 'very good friends with, and they're great kids.' 'That's the way it should be — they're friends no matter what,' Faucher said. 'There's no problem — why introduce something that might create one? These kids, two days ago, were just simply friends. Now they have this to deal with.' pfeely@
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Manchester school board sends $246 million budget to aldermen for approval
Feb. 23—Manchester school board members have voted to recommend the district's proposed $246 million Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal be sent to aldermen for approval. The vote followed a public hearing Thursday night at West High School on the budget that failed to entice a single member of the public to speak in favor or against the proposal. Also recommended for approval was the school district's 2026 School Food and Nutrition Budget of $6.3 million and the 2025 Capital Improvements Projects (CIP) plan of $6.6 million. According to Superintendent of Schools Jennifer Chmiel, the budget supports 11,865 Manchester School District students, as well as services at charter and parochial schools. It also supports several areas of student success, including educational programming, hiring and retention, improved measures of college and career readiness, improved graduation rates and the start of priority one facilities projects. "On behalf of the district, I would like to thank the Board of School Committee for approving our tax-cap compliant budget proposal," Chmiel said Friday. "I have the responsibility of preparing a responsible, tax cap-compliant budget that funds our priorities and continues to meet the needs of our students. We remain one of the lowest-funded districts in the state, thousands below the average in per-pupil spending. This forces us to be diligent, thoughtful and creative in seeking efficiencies. Parameters of tax cap "We worked hard in developing this budget to ensure we are meeting the needs of students while working within the parameters of the tax cap." The school budget proposal contains $112.1 million in salaries (a $10.7 million increase over last year), $11.3 million in transportation costs (a $3.7 million decrease from last year due to the transition to in-house home-to-school busing), $11.7 million in debt service and $9.7 million to cover a $320,000 increase in costs for city services, including a 3% increase in costs for the Aramark custodial services contract and 5% increase for school resource officers from Manchester Police. The $6.6 million in CIP projects includes $300,000 for playground replacement, $1.2 million for the purchase of 11 buses and $250,000 for information technology network infrastructure costs. Manchester operates under a cap on property taxes established by a voter-approved amendment to the city charter. Generally referred to as a tax cap, the provision limits the total amount of money raised from property taxes, rather than the tax rate itself. Before the vote City and school budgets for the next fiscal year can increase by 4.27%. Prior to Thursday's vote, school board member Leslie Want raised the idea of sending to aldermen both a tax-cap compliant budget and a so-called "needs" budget, listing what the district would need to adequately deliver services to students, something administrators did in prior years. "In the past, we've always presented a needs budget," Want said. "We didn't do that last year, and we're not doing that again this year. I'm only asking because, last night, in a committee meeting, it was brought to the Student Conduct Committee's attention that we have a school that's unable to provide all the needs for all the students because they don't have full-time personnel to deal with those needs. "I mean, I know that the district's doing its best, but I just want to say that I'm disappointed that we don't have more to offer our kids, because I do believe that Manchester has some of the highest needs in the state." "Highest diversity, highest level of need," confirmed Chmiel. Mayor's comments Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais reminded board members of the compensation study done on salaries of employees on the city side — which concluded raises are due for Manchester to retain and recruit employees — and the importance of staying within the tax cap. "I'd be very careful characterizing this as a political will conversation — there are very real fiscal realities that we face," Ruais said. "I wouldn't characterize it in a political sense, more just the reality of budgeting and the global view that we all have to have when we're putting forward budgets." pfeely@
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Public can weigh in on proposed $246M Manchester school budget at hearing
Feb. 19—Manchester School Superintendent Jennifer Chmiel has gone through the district's Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal line by line and item by item. The proposal has the unanimous backing of a school board subcommittee. Now it's time for the public to weigh in. A public hearing on the Manchester School District's $246 million budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026 — as well as the FY '26 School Food and Nutrition Budget of $6.3 million and the FY '25 Capital Improvements Projects (CIP) of $6.6 million will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. in the large conference room on the third floor in the district offices at West High School. According to Chmiel, the budget supports 11,865 Manchester School District students, as well as services at charter and parochial schools, and supports several areas of student success, including educational programming, hiring and retention, improved measures of college and career readiness, improved graduation rates and the start of priority one facilities projects. "We're approaching (the budget process) understanding the level of scrutiny on public (education), but I think the team and I go back and say we've got to do the best for our district, and we're doing good stuff — good things are starting to happen," Chmiel said. "We're seeing those outcomes start to go in the right direction. So while that scrutiny is there, we kind of feel strongly that we just need to keep pushing the ball up the hill. and do right by kids." The Fiscal Year 2026 school budget proposal contains $112.1 million in salaries (a $10.7 million increase over last year), $11.3 million in transportation costs (a $3.7 million decrease from last year due to the transition to in-house home-to-school busing), $11.7 million in debt service and $9.7 million to cover a $320,000 increase in costs for city services, including a 3% increase in costs for the Aramark custodial services contract and 5% increase for school resource officers from Manchester police. The $6.6 million in CIP projects includes $300,000 for playground replacement, $1.2 million for the purchase of 11 buses and $250,000 for information technology network infrastructure costs. Chmiel said this is the fourth budget she and Karen DeFrancis, executive director of finance for the Manchester School District, have worked on together. "We've got a better system, we've got a different eye, looking for efficiencies, pulling building-level leaders and department heads in and really scrutinizing," Chmiel said. "What we do now is we bring in principals, we bring in the department heads, and we go line by line by line. We're really in the weeds with them, but that gives us a different footing of what the budget really looks like. So much of it's staffing, that if we can get really solid in those numbers, we're in a good space when we present that budget. I think it's 68 or 69% of our budget right now is staffing, so it's a huge chunk of our work." Chmiel said the district is starting to see enrollment numbers stabilize. "We saw some of the sending districts pull out over the years, and then we saw a dip right around COVID," Chmiel said. "We're seeing that number starting to come back and stabilize a bit. Last time I looked, right before last week's (school board) meeting, we were up by 14 kids. Not a lot, but it's still 14 kids going in the right direction, not reverse. We talked this morning — we're still seeing enrollments coming in." Staffing costs include salary lines of $203,359 for Chmiel, $155,017 for Assistant Superintendent Nicole Doherty, $128,068 for Athletic Director Christine Pariseau Telge and $119,911 for Amadou Hamady, executive director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Chmiel's salary is not the highest in New Hampshire, even though Manchester is the state's largest school district. Her salary falls within the median range of average salaries nationwide. "We're not the highest, we're not the lowest," Chmiel said. "What's the turnover of superintendents? How often are we seeing them flip? There's some value to the district to have someone sitting for longer than two years. We saw that cycle in the past, of people kind of just rotating through here." Following Thursday's public hearing and discussion by the full Board of School Committee, the proposed FY '26 school budget will be sent to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for consideration.
