School board predicts dire consequences if $9.5 million reduction from their budget request is upheld
Manchester School District Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Chmiel announced that if Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais’ proposed FY’ 26 Manchester School District budget figure passes without amendment, it would cause severe impacts to the district’s ability to serve its students.
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Manchester School District Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Chmiel announced that if Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais’ proposed FY’ 26 Manchester School District budget figure passes without amendment, it would cause severe impacts to the district’s ability to serve its students.
That, and other cuts, would come as part of a budget figure from Ruais that is $9,550,281 less than what the Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) initially recommended. Chmiel made it clear that she did not support any reduction of services, but if the gap in the two budget proposals could not be reconciled, she would likely pursue a certain set of reductions.
Highlighting the likely impacts (see below) was removing 38 teaching positions and another eight non-teaching positions through attrition rather than layoffs, necessitating employee buyouts, particularly for employees near retirement age.
That figure is tentative and could go up or down depending on increased reductions in certain areas. Chmiel later asked the board on its opinion regarding a hiring freeze of non-essential position vacancies to avoid layoffs in addition to the attritional reductions.
Opinions on the hiring freeze were mixed, with Ward 4 BOSC Member Leslie Want calling the idea “draconian” and stating that it could prevent the district from hiring people in essential positions to Ward 9 BOSC Member Bob Baines stating that the board should not micromanage Chmiel if she felt that this was the best route to help the district through a difficult period and the mayor seeing it as a prudent and temporary measure echoing a comparable policy he put forward in the city’s government.
While the hiring freeze idea was withdrawn due to disagreement among the board, there was unanimity that the gulf between the mayor’s proposed school budget bottom line and the board’s recommended bottom line would be catastrophic to progress made within the district over the past few years.
In addition to the staff reductions, there was wide concern over impacts to the district’s transportation services. A tap-on card system on buses that would let parents track their children’s route to school would be paused, elementary and middle school students within two miles of a school would not be picked up by a bus, and high school students would once again have to pay to use a school bus.
Several members of the board saw the expansion of the “no-bus zone” as a safety hazard, noting that two miles is the equivalent of City Hall to Elliot Hospital. They also noted that change and the return of fees would likely have a significant impact on attendance.
“We can write as many attendance policies as we want, we can be communicative as we want, but if (students) cannot afford to get to school, they will not come to school,” said Ward 11 BOSC Member Liz O’Neil.
A pause on expansion of the athletics budget, reduction of contractual positions like cafeteria workers and a reduction of the supplies budget also drew concern as members of the board feared that not bridging the approximately $9.5 million gap would create significant setbacks to the district’s progress.
“We are all sitting here in political positions because we believe that investing in the students of Manchester is good. When I first thought about running or office, it was because teachers did not have supplies, we have larger class sizes, and teachers were working without a contract. We addressed all those things,” said Ward 2 BOSC Member Dr. Sean Parr. “If these cuts go through it will undo much of what we’ve done over the past few years.”
It was also noted by several members of the board that the average increase to the district budget over the past six years was 1.06%, less than the amount of inflation.
Discussion also revolved around how the board should advocate for its recommended budget to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, who have final say on the bottom line of the district’s budget and will be meeting for a special public hearing on the budget on Tuesday night.
At-Large BOSC Member Peter Argeropoulos said that the board should craft a joint letter advocating for the board’s recommended figure, with Baines saying such a letter would be a waste of time and the BOSC should instead reach out to the board with personal discussions. However, it was noted by some members of the board that they tried to reach out to their Aldermanic counterparts with little luck.
Baines also criticized BOSC Rule 2.14 stating that any motion with a roll call vote is requested cannot be interrupted. The motion for the letter passed 12-3, with Baines joined by Ruais and Ward 12 BOSC Member Carlos Gonzalez. After the vote, Ruais noted that it would not make sense for him to sign on to a letter opposing his own budget proposal and since he sits on both boards, it would not make sense to write a letter to himself.
