The Hampton Elementary School Administration did not respond to the Gazette’s repeated requests for information on the budget the Board of Education adopted in March. Because taxpayers anticipate this information, even, as was the case last year as well, if it is less than complete due to uncertainties with State funding, we have generated an article based on information the school board recently provided to the Board of Finance.

The elementary school’s FY2019-2020 budget proposal is level with the current year’s spending plan at $2,136,234. Line item increases on the two pages the school board distributed to the finance board include an 8% raise for the Principal, an additional 30 days per year for the Director of Special Education, an upgrade to the fire panel, student tuition, and increases in technology, books for classroom libraries, and instructional supplies to equip a second half day pre-school classroom if necessary.

The Board of Education also presented information on the need to replace the school’s generator and to repair the school’s parking lot and the playground. The Board of Education is requesting an additional $200,000 from the Town’s General Fund to pave the parking lot and to replace the generator, and the use of the school’s Capital Non-Recurring Account for repair of the playground.

During a subsequent meeting of the Board of Finance, members discussed anticipated cuts in Education Cost Sharing (ECS) amounting to approximately $175,000 for this year and $160,000 in the next.  Members also discussed proposed legislation unanimously approved by the General Assembly’s Education Committee regarding the Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR) which would allow school districts to reduce their budgets in accordance with decreases in student populations of the last five years.

Members of the Board of Finance discussed postponing a vote on the school budget until the ECS funding and the MBR legislation is finalized. Last year, after voters defeated a school budget with a 0% increase at a referendum, taxpayers at an October Town Meeting approved the school budget with approximately $40,000 less than the original proposal when the State confirmed that the school could reduce its budget by that amount.