Jaffrey-Rindge board cuts next year’s sports, jobs after voters slash budget

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JAFFREY, NH – After voters slashed the Jaffrey-Rindge school board’s budget at the polls last week, the board approved $3 million in spending cuts Monday for next school year, eliminating about two dozen jobs, cutting competitive sports and reducing the pre-kindergarten program.

A big reduction, $366,978, is in athletics, a cut that stands to end the school district’s interscholastic sports teams, said Lisa Wiley, who chairs the board.

Conant High School in Jaffrey has storied boys and girls basketball programs that have won 21 state titles dating back to 1985. The school has also won championships in baseball and girls tennis.

Stipends for coaches, the athletic trainer position and pay for referees will all be cut, said Wiley, a Rindge resident. Another $135,000 will be saved by eliminating the job of athletic director.

The district’s pre-kindergarten program will continue next school year, but admission will be through a lottery system with priority given to special education students. This was the case a few years ago, before the district began offering universal pre-k, she said.

Most of the job cuts will involve teachers, but they also include two assistant principals, a groundskeeper, a custodian, an administrative assistant and three paraprofessionals.

Additional savings will come from eliminating summer programs, field trips and paint and flooring work.

During the school district’s deliberative session in February, voters cut school officials’ proposed budget by $3 million, or about 10 percent. On March 11, voters in the district approved, 1,623-1,470, that revised budget, which totaled $30.76 million, down roughly $1.1 million, or 3.46 percent, from the figure they greenlit last year.

The vote was a combination of the results from the two towns. Rindge supported the revised budget 1,011-682, while Jaffrey opposed it 788-612.

“The voters knew what was at stake,” Superintendent Reuben Duncan said in an email Tuesday. “The majority of those who voted on March 11, chose the reduced budget anyway.

“In the following weeks and months, conversations will take place about how the impact of these cuts can be reduced. Some community members have discussed fundraising efforts to keep Pre-K and provide athletics.”

Duncan said the district communicated to households throughout Jaffrey and Rindge about what a budget cut of this size would mean.

“Mailers, social media, and newspapers included the information so the Jaffrey and Rindge voters knew the consequences of cutting $3,000,000,” he said.

Parents were concerned over potential cuts to athletics, but were not surprised by the results of Monday’s school board meeting.

“Unfortunately, we saw the writing on the wall, and we knew this was coming,” said Chris Spingola, a Conant parent and former coach.

Both of Spingola’s daughters have played sports at Conant. His oldest, Tess, was a three-sport athlete who graduated in 2022. His youngest, Sophia, a junior, also plays three sports at Conant and has aspirations to play ice hockey at the collegiate level.

“My youngest cried herself to sleep last night,” said Spingola, who lives in Rindge. “These are still COVID kids. How much more can they take?”

Wiley, the school board chair, said at least 100 people attended Monday night’s meeting at Conant’s Pratt Auditorium in Jaffrey.

“As you can imagine, this was devastating for absolutely everybody,” she said. “Nobody spoke in favor of the cuts. Nobody wants these cuts to happen, but at the same time people want their taxes to go down.”

Rindge voters last week also rejected a $5.6 million town budget the selectboard recommended, which is expected to lead to a $5.49 million default budget.

In New Hampshire, which has no overall sales or income tax, local property taxpayers pay the lion’s share of local school costs. Consequently, the state has some of the highest property tax rates in the nation.

“State funding has to change,” Wiley said. “Clearly, this is not sustainable.”

But she said there’s also sentiment against public education at the federal level.

President Donald Trump has called for eliminating the U.S. Department of Education. There is also a nationwide voucher movement favoring use of taxpayer dollars to help parents send their kids to private, religious or home schools.

“What we’re seeing federally is a dismantling of the public school system, which has been around for 100 years to serve a population that would not normally have access to education, to quality food, to experiences,” Wiley said.

“Somebody, somewhere believes that the public school system needs to be not just changed, but basically eradicated.”

Rick Green can be reached at 603-352-1234, extension 1435, or rgreen@keenesentinel.com.

Michael M. McMahon is The Sentinel’s sports editor. He can be reached at 603-355-8570 or mmcmahon@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @MMcMahonKS.

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