Letter with suggestions for reduction of the school budgetPublished in the Hooksett Banner, Feb. 27, 2014 To the Residents of Allenstown, here are some solutions to cover the reduction to the School Budget. If you are interested in the reducing the School Budget, you need to vote yes to School Board Article 1. As most voters should be aware of, residents have the opportunity to vote No on Article 1 of the School Board Budget; which will revert the Default Budget back to $9,750,821.00 as the School Budget originally read. If the voters, decide on the Default Budget, this will implement a tax rate around $19.62 per $1,000.00. With the $1,000,000.00 cut, the tax rate would be $15.56 per $1,000.00. The tax rate for 2013 was $18.56 per $1,000.00. As you can see a $1.06 increases over 2013 is a very big increase. It is the voters' choice to make this decision. Also I did not have in my hands the cuts that I would have liked to present at the Deliberative Session. I would like to see the School Budget lower than the Default Budget. I feel there could be cuts implemented without the loss of the ancillary programs; the classes should have 20 students in each class not 13. I requested a 91-A response to public information on the school operation. I received the information and there are 13 to 20 students in the classrooms. If the student count was around 20 to 25 students in each class, that reduces the teachers by 7 plus benefits. These teachers get around $65,000 to $75,000 with benefits running around 20% of their salary, so the total would be $78,000.00 to $90,000.00 with these teachers cut. The budget would be cut by $546,000.00 to $630,000.00 by itself. This would also cut the 6 teacher specialists and 6 teachers aides. The specialist income ranges between $35,000.00 to $44,400.00 with benefits running around 20% of their salary. The total would be $42,000.00 to $53,280.00. With these specialists cut, it gives another $252.000.00 to $319,680.00. Now we will count the aides which make around $18,000.00 to $25,000.00 plus benefits running around 20% of their wages, so that would be $21,600.00 to $30,000.00. With these aides cut, it gives another $129,600.00 to $180,000.00 for a total cut of between $927,600.00 to $1,129,680.00. If the School Board sent the right information, these are only some of the cuts that can be made. There is more if a person wants to look for them. Like moving all of the students into AES and closing ARD in which there are enough classrooms. That would save a great deal of money -- something in the millions. Larry Anderson
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