Residents at a packed deliberative session for the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative District slashed the proposed budget by $3 million Wednesday, leaving the proposed budget at $30.76 million.

A total of 336 voters, 66 from Jaffrey and 270 from Rindge, attended the session in the Rindge Memorial School gymnasium. Moderator Bob Schaumann said it was more than he had ever seen in attendance, and four to five times the usual turnout.

The budget as initially proposed was approximately $33.76 million, a $1.34 million increase from the current budget, or 4.13%. The majority of the increase is attributed to planned salary increases and increases in health and dental insurance. Dan Aho of Rindge proposed the amendment to cut the budget, seconded by Tom Coneys of Rindge. Aho pointed to the nearby district of Hollis-Brookline, citing their budget of $27 million and saying, “I don’t see why we can’t live with $30 million.”

Roberta Oeser of Rindge said that the School Board’s proposed budget “will tax people out of their homes,” Max Geesey of Rindge said the district has to be more efficient and smarter with the taxpayer money.

Kevin Swift of Jaffrey spoke against the amendment, saying no one wants to pay more in taxes, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of children’s education.

“It is completely unacceptable to me to take money away from our children so we can have a little more,” Swift said.

The vote on the amendment was held by secret ballot, with 319 votes cast. The count was 185 in favor, and 134 against.

Following the meeting, School Board Chair Chris Ratclifffe said he was “certainly disappointed” in the result.

“Removing $3 million from a carefully crafted budget is reckless, and harmful to children and the community,” Ratcliffe said.

Ratcliffe said he was confident that on March 11, members of the community would me support the school district by voting against the amended budget, which would put the default into place. The default budget, which is the same as last year’s budget, with contractual increases included, was higher than the budget initially proposed by the School Board, and is set at $33,858,458.

Residents discuss CTE addition

While the budget was the only article that drew an amendment from the floor Wednesday, there was still discussion over a proposal for a $22.9 million addition to the school to create a new career and technical education center. The center would increase the space for the district’s existing building trades program and add two new career tracks – culinary arts and public safety, which would include an EMT course.

The total cost of the project is $22.9 million, and the district expects that up to 75% of the building costs would come from the state’s Department of Education. The article calls for $16 million from the state, and $6.8 million to come from a bond. The first year’s payment of the bond would be $171,225.

By law, bond issues require a three-fifths majority vote at the polls to pass.

Speakers on both sides of the issue received applause from a significant portion of the crowd. Rick Martin of Rindge said he was a proponent of technical education, but he felt there were gaps in the district’s approach. He said he didn’t know if there was enough information about potential career futures and ongoing costs to the district to make a decision.

Conant Middle High School Principal David Dustin said that the DOE had approved the project based on both a provable student interest and possible career futures, and that the district had removed one possible track -- fire science -- because the state didn’t feel there was a strong-enough need to support that field. Superintendent Reuben Duncan said there is an existing building trades instructor, but adding two new programs would include the need for two new full-time instruction positions.

Duncan said the district has an agreement with partner schools Mascenic and ConVal to share CTE programming, and 25% of seats are reserved for out-of-district students, who pay tuition to attend those classes. That revenue would offset about half the cost of the additional teachers, Duncan said. The culinary track also plans to include a community cafe or catering for the outside community, which would be a fee-based service and bring in some revenue to offset ongoing costs. 

When asked if the district could add the programming with its current space, Dustin said that the current building trades program is too short on space to be able to implement some of the projects it would like to do now, and that the consumer science room is set up for learning home-style cooking, not to learn the ins and outs of a commercial operation.

Other articles on the ballot

There are three more monetary articles on the ballot this year. The first is for collective bargaining agreement with district nurses, which includes adjustments for this year and the coming one. The article would have an increase of about $20,776 for the first year and $20,774 for the second. The agreement includes changes to the salary scale, and adjusted language in the agreement to support hiring and retaining nurses.

The district is also proposing a $50,000 increase to the special education contingency fund, and $400,000 for the reconstruction and repair of district properties. Both would come from end-of-year funds, if any remain, and not from new taxation.