001no effect on the tax rate the school board recommends this appropriation and Kelly McConnell will discuss article two for us you want me to stand up there no I think you can do it right here just put the speaker close the mic close hi everyone I'm Kelly McConnell um so a lot of this was already introduced I'll just add um that uh sorry skipping through some of was already said um so historically the school boards have always suggested warrant articles to spend the available earnings and not the entire fund although it could suggest doing so as defined by the trust the assets of the fund may not be used by the Handover School District to reduce taxes but to afford advantages in addition there too to the students of the Hanover School District um these
002expenditures are used for special projects one time or out of the ordinary opportunities or new initiatives that can be petitioned by the school's Educators other employees parents or taxpayers so I'll just pause on that to emphasize that anyone watching who is a taxpayer um or a parent can propose special projects that would draw from this fund and we encourage people to do so um the school board then votes on whether or not to support the Bridgman fund requests some of the recent projects have included a new program of literacy books and tools for grades K through two onsite artists including the Vos Brothers quartet Vos sorry um adjustments and renovations to building spaces for specialized probably no one's speaking right now but uh okay great so I'm going to assume no one on Zoom was
003commenting on this article so we're going to move on to the next article uh article three shall the district determine and fix the salaries of school district officers as follows school board members $1,000 per member with an additional $300 for the school board chair School District Treasurer $234 school district clerk $300 and School District moderator $300 in accordance with RSA 194 colon 10 and further raise and appropriate the sum of $ 9,934 to fund these salaries School Board recommends this article in appropriation the stiens for school board members School District Clerk and moderator remain unchanged there's a small increase for the treasurer position the article's effect on the tax rate is negligible Kelly McConnell will discuss article three for us don't know that I have too much to add to that um I will just
004say that over time um there has not been much of an increase in any of these positions um we're a pretty pretty great deal when you consider the amount of time that goes into a lot of these positions um and they are all instrumental to the district's um functioning so um our district cler to man moderator are instrumental in the district's annual voting processes together they officiate and record annual meetings set the official ballots monitor voting procedures in the polls direct vote tallying and ratify results um the treasurer is charged with the oversight and independent balancing of all district funds the review expenditures uh they review expenditures weekly and balance make accounts monthly and after review of expenditures by the board they sign all District funded checks uh and finally for our board members each
005board member is expected to attend monthly meetings from August through June in normal years meetings are suspended during the month of July but during the budget season additional meetings are often required in addition board members participate in various committees such as Budget Finance committees evaluation negotiations policy and various ad hoc committees as needed um and as Tom mentioned this article's effect on the tax rate is really negligible it's less than one cent so thank you all for your support any discussion okay I'm G also assume that probably no one on Zoom wants to comment on this one so I'm going to move ahead to article four shall the Hanover district vote to approve the cost items of the three-year collective bargaining agreement reached between the Hanover support staff Association and the Hanover School Board which
006calls for the following increases in salaries and benefit the estimated increase over the status quo budget for 202 2025 2026 is 155,50 188 the estimated increase over a status quo budget for 2627 is 8,589 and the estimated increase over the status quo budget for 2728 is $888,000 and further shall the district raise in appropriate the sum of $15,856 such sum representing the estimated increase in support staff salaries and benefits for the 2025 2026 fiscal year brought about by the collective bargaining agreement School Board recommends this article in appropriation the sum necessary to pay the so-called status quo salaries and benefits for the support staff if this article is defeated is included in the operating budget in article 6 a favorable vote on this article shall be considered the approval of the cost items in all
007years of the proposed collective bargaining agreement and the a majority vote is required for the approval Ben Keeny will discuss article four for us great thank you Tom so in January we reached a tenative agreement for the next three years with the HSS Nea group that represents our support staff this group of employees includes educational assistance school secretaries some administrative assistants and accounting assistants and similar positions the details of the your agreement can be reviewed on board docs in the January 28th Dresden school board meeting under item 9B there are several changes in the document that was signed by both groups these changes include language clarification such as grievance steps depar definitions of co-pay timelines leave time calculations and how inservice days are calculated it also includes budgetary changes including changes to the wage scale
008which are 10% for next year and then 4 and a half% for each of the next two years we have established a better defined mentoring program and those mentors will receive a $250 per semester stien when completing their duties we have longevity payments to longer term employees now beginning at the completion of year five and an additional tier added at the completion of year 20 and we have equalized compensation over 22 pay period sort of a smoothing out process and we have more recognition of years of experience and relevant College attainment this adds 6 cents each for both the Handover and drent School District separately resulting in a total tax increase of 12 cents okay Richard Richard Gregor from the an Finance Comm hi uh my name is Richard Gregor I am the vice chair
009excuse me and battling the flu myself of the Hanover finance committee before I comment about Article 4 just want to acknowledge all the hard work that the uh School Board as well as the faculty staff of all of our schools do to uh educate our children I personally have benefited them from that and I'm grateful that there's so many caring people in this community um that being said with regards to article four the Handover finance committee voted on January 16th to unanimous unanimously support the proposal uh to a budget amount of um was it 85 whatever it was said we support that wholeheartedly and would recommend that the town approve that article thank you okay are there any other comments from the public anything on Zoom nothing on Zoom okay we'll move on to the
010next article Article Five shall the Hanover School District vote to approve the cost items in the collective bargaining agreement reached between the Hanover Dresden service staff afcme local 1348 and the Hanover School Board which calls for the following increases in salaries and benefits the estimated increase over status quo budget for the year 2526 is $ 21,889 and further shall the district raise and appropriate the sum of $2,089 such sum representing the estimated increase in service staff salaries and benefits for the 252 fiscal year brought about by this collective bargaining agreement again a majority vote is required School Board recommends this article in appropriation the sum necessary to pay the so-called status quo salaries and benefits for service staff if this article is defeated is included in the operating budget in article six a favorable vote
011on this article shall be considered the approval of the cost items in all years of the proposed collective bargaining agreement and then we'll discuss article five for us thank you so we reached a ten agreement with this group in January for a one-year contract starting in the 25 School 25 26 school year this group of employees specific to Handover includes four and a half positions within the Handover school district and additional positions interest in which we'll talk about later this evening some of the language clarifications to the agreement include timing step and wage increases to July 1st the appropriate time for wearing shorts on the job which does matter for this group dealing with the heat that they have to work with and and how to do how do promoting from within and transfer jobs
012and how to post jobs externally changes to the that have budgetary implications include longevity payments that have been increased by $200 there are six levels of longevity for this particular group and there's been a change in differential pay added for an additional 30 cents for second shift workers and a cost of living adjustment on the wage scale of 4% an overview can be reviewed on board docs in the January 28th Dresden school board meeting under item 9B and as Tom mentioned it has to be publicly ratified by both the Handover and Dresden school districts this increases 1 cent for Handover and three cents for Dresden for a total Town increase of four cents okay Richard uh once again at the January 16th meeting the Hanmer finance committee voted unanimously to support Article 5 and we
013recommend the town do so as well thank you okay any discussion from the public nothing on Zoom also so move ahead with the article six shall the hver school district raise in appropriate the amount of 16 mil1 of the district for the 2526 fiscal year this sum does not include the funds appropriated in any other articles School Board recommends this article in appropriation and Kim Hartman will discuss article six for us thank you so this is the first year that I will not be presenting slides and I'll give a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation and I announced it in some Schoolboard meetings and I think um we have maybe about 10 members of the public here and last year when I gave that presentation we had zero so I will not take it personally that this
014will be a Snappy summary of the budget um but maybe that is what people would prefer um so so this year this is the the Handover budget warrant article the Handover FY 26 budget is proposed to increase 3.46% or 544000 which includes this warrant article as well as the previously discussed standard uh Ford stiens and Bridgman warrant articles um the three largest expenditure drivers of the operating budget are the teachers contract um which was approved by voters last year um which includes a 4% base wage increase um the second is a 12.9% increase in Health Plan premiums and that also includes election changes and uh and our last is an increase in the sau70 assessment of which Handover gets assigned a portion of of it based upon the percentage of total students um and those
015who enter um Handover or the ray school we get assigned a proportion of that and so if we have more schools some more students in Handover um at the ray school we'll have more share of the sau70 split um so the the health insurance rate hike of 12.9% is in line with other school districts um are seeing as plans consistently outpace the prevailing Regional inflation which was last measured um from January at 3.7% um the increase in the sa70 assessment does have multiple factors including um we filled positions faster than we were expecting um we had uh kind of slower retirement delays than we were anticipating in the budget budget to budget um the pursuit of um actually new Revenue opportunities um by becoming potentially a an administrative Services Regional hub for other districts um
016by becoming a regional Hub we could have the capacity to hire an additional Finance um FTE which would be helpful for us in overlapping and just executing our our financial services um but that would also come with potentially revenue from other districts who are looking to kind of tap into um an A A broader seu function um and then the third is a Strategic investment in long-term capital planning um it's actually something that the finance committee has has supported in the past in kind of encouraging the school districts to think on a longer term basis and we want to do so in a way that's fiscally responsible and then also is um environmentally sustainable and so we know that as we will be looking in projects in the future not necessarily in this budget but
017if roofs need to be replaced is that a good time for solar and questions on projects like those is what we'd be looking to um include in um financial planning for kind of building our robust planning um system in this year's sau70 budget in total the ray school is projected to enroll 468 um students kindergarten through fifth grade um next year and that's a 28 student gain at the elementary school from last year's projections uh the Handover school board and administration are keeping a watchful eye on enrollment growth and we have budgeted for an additional classroom teacher to keep the class size within policy if needed this year we've kind of been bumping up on some of those um and so we we want to have that capacity if we need a hire over the
018summer based upon those enrollment numbers we'll be able to the other changes in staff for next year include a half of an FTE increase in specialed teachers um with the same decrease in regular Ed uh behavioral specialists and after a programmatic review led by Lauren amran and her team there was determined not to be as high of a need for a 79 FTE interventionist and other reductions in um health and regular at assistance were identified um there are small changes in additional hours for a library assistant and special ed assistance um so in total if you take all the FTE changes the ray school plans for a 0.13 FTE decrease for FY 26 um the factors just described explain if you looked at the total growth in the direct Ray School operating expenditures the growth
019would be 3.84% um however the the Handover School District the budget contains more than just the operations of the ray School the race the Handover school district is also responsible for the special education expenditures for our outof district placements for students prek through grade 12 um and this year there is a 22.75% increase or a 232,000 increase in special education tuition due to a combination of tuition rate um hikes and just changes in student needs so to round out the uh significant um changes in expenditures our capex for site and building improvements are actually going to be lower this year 105,000 for routine management compared to the year prior and so those are just all the expenditures and that's really what we vote on um we do not vote on a tax rate um that
020which would include the revenue offset and what our actual tax bill would be but we do look at it because it's important as folks um and so moving to revenue the Handover School District expects to wean off some of the stronger surpluses that we've had from prior years and has adjusted our balance carry forward downward um by about $300,000 that would be a just from a surplus to Surplus projection um a reduction of 300,000 Revenue um the current estimate for adequacy Aid this is a state Grant um is expected to grow close to 2 $200,000 to the positive due to Stronger enrollments it's paid basically on per pupil if we have more students we would get more of that Revenue according to the formula this year as we are projecting currently um things aren't always
021are guaranteed when it comes to state and federal revenue so um but this is what we're anticipating at this time um so you on that note you know due to uncertainty in federal funding the projected federal revenue um the our projection has been cut more than half uh to land at 18,000 total um Allin revenue is modestly Higher by over 20,000 or less than 1% um should all of the base warrant articles pass in Handover and Dresden this includes the main budget article plus the board stiens and the Bridgeman Grant which are kind of just our routine warrant articles um then the estimated School tax rate for Handover over is 2 and a half% however of course that does not include the uh Union contracts and others but should all the warrant articles in Handover
022and Dresden which we have yet to talk about but um if all of those were to pass and if all of the property assumptions um for property valuation and state school tax rates hold true then the school tax rate would increase uh 4.3% or 50% on the tax rate I will note that this is a pretty conservative estimate of our property value estimate um it could be higher but I think that the um the way we're currently thinking this is a reasonable estimate to to think of course if we don't have Revenue materialize then we'll need to make it up somehow um later so just just to kind of give you a sense that that this is the number what we're currently thinking but it is no way a promise um and finally I'd like
023to um congratulate the students faculty staff SAU and the Handover Community for receiving the tremendous honor of the National Blue Ribbon School award um from the US Department of Education this past year the ray School joins hover High School who won in 2022 um and in its recognition for overall academic excellence and the ray school was also one of only two student uh two schools awarded in the Granite State this year we're very proud of our Handover schools and we like to thank the community for continuing to support our students students thank you okay thank you so much Tom can I make one additional comment sure um so I just wanted to mention said there was there was no um there were no slides tonight but if anyone did want to see those slides you
024can look back on YouTube U and board docs and find all of that she presented them at least twice um in public session so those are available online and I just wanted to make one small correction you said 50% on the tax rate that it's 50 cents cents on the tax rate so it's fun to make sure that 4.3% 50 cents on the dollar tax yes sorry Pro I was listening Kim I was listening very closely I'm part of the flu crew so thanks thanks Richard uh once again on uh January 16th the finance committee voted to an support article 6 and I just want to reiterate sort of what Kim has said uh with our own analysis of the budget and I'm just going to reiterate what we have already previously released in written
025form but I'm going to just read it here again um just so everybody's clear after all our costs from articles are factored in the Hanover budget expenditures will increase by $821,000 47 or about 5.22% after factoring local revenues which are 20 24354 or 16.79% greater than fiscal year 25 due primary to to increase Source State sources and adjusting this by a decrease in a projected balance carry forward of 19245 net of Warren article 7's offset so essentially what that means and as Kim alluded to earlier uh when combined with the increase of the dresen assessment and of all the warrant articles in Handover and dresen were to pass and if all the assumptions of valuation and local property taxes are calculations hold true then the tax rate would in fact increase by 50 or $121
026C per thousand of property value or around 4.3% so that's just validating what Kim has already mentioned but I just wanted to incre clarify that the 50 cents since was already clarified but one other thing that I want to mention looking forward um the Handover committee uh anticipates a step up in capital spending stemming from both strategic planning and capital Improvement programs will all likely be cost drivers in the future and for the coming years together with ongoing health care and personal cost pressures the Hanover finance committee foresees the need for continued uh careful evaluation of Staffing levels which was commendably demonstrated this year and incremental initiatives During the multi-year period when enrollment is expected to be flattish it was good news to hear that the enrollment actually is expected to be increasing given that
027the national Trends are are suggesting there's going to be a decrease enrollment as we go forward and finally I'd like to say that the Handover finance committee commends the efforts of the administrators faculty and staff excuse me uh in our District's pursuit of educational Excellence thank thank you thank you sorry thank you okay anyone from the public W to make a comment statement anybody on Zoom no all right we'll move ahead to article s shall the Hanover School District vote to appropriate up to $100,000 to be added to the school building's maintenance Expendable trust fund previously established in 2001 with said funds to come solely from any year-end unassigned general fund balance over and above $1,400,000 School Board recommends this article and appropriation and Deb Nelson will discuss and explain it for us it's always
028easy oops it's always easy to do the ones that have zero tax impact um so we are beginning to embark on the facilities portion of our strategic plan and we're proposing a transfer to the school buildings maintenance Expendable Trust of up to $100,000 to come solely from any year-end unassigned general fund balance and again it will not have any impact on the 2526 tax rate as of June 30 2024 the balance in the fund was or is $167,700 th000 is being transferred the end of this school year we feel it's important to set aside funds in case any emergency situation should arise Andor any of the smaller projects that we embark on experience any inflationary pressures that are potentially unforeseen the funds could also be used to offset costs of any upcoming larger projects that
029may be planned in the future in line with our overarching strategic planning goal of providing facilities grounds and environments environments that are sustainable fiscally responsible and that enhance our curricular and extracurricular goals for each student to achieve success thank you no comments any comments from the public okay article eight then to transact any non-substantive business that may legally come before this discussion phase of this meeting whatever that means um is there any non substantive items that anyone wants to raise um seeing none um I usually take this time to thank the members of the board for all the work that they've done during the year on behalf of those of us who live in the community we're all proud of our school district and we're proud of you and thank you so much for your
030service this is also probably the short shortest meeting that I've ever moderated and I've been doing this for 15 or 20 years and it's also my last meeting moderating as the Hanover School District moderator so I'll entertain a motion to adjourn moved in thank you son okay we are adjourned thank you so much for