Moving on.

Last night, the School Board discussed the the art room moving to the Perkins building and some of the considerations around that potential move, including cost. safety of students crossing RT152 and impact to the art program. 

The issue is that there is a student entering the NJSHS who has significant health needs and will need a space dedicated to meet those needs. In addition, there are students with similar needs at NES who will be moving to the NJSHS in the coming years. After looking at the options available, the current art room is the most appropriate space.

The total budget for the art room move to Perkins looks to be about $50K, though that information was not available last night and the Superintendent didn’t want to commit to that number (or any number.) Board member Al Zink seemed annoyed by this and rightly so. It is the Board's responsibility to ensure that the SAU is responsibly using taxpayer funds, but they can’t act without the full picture. In addition to the $27K it will cost for the renovation and asbestos abatement, they also need to consider security/alarm costs, technology and crossing light cost--none of which was available last night.

The Board didn’t act on the proposal and though it is frustrating, I can’t say I blame them.  They may very well find themselves between a rock and a hard place at their next meeting if they are again missing important information. Decisions have to be made ASAP or the work won’t be done in time for the start of school. Hopefully Mike Martin will have all the pieces together in time for the next meeting.

Town Warrant 101 - the Capital Reserve funds.

There are 11 warrant articles addressing capital fund contributions on the ballot this year. If you don't remember having to vote on these in the past, it's because you didn't - the contributions to the capital funds were always included in the operating budget. This year, per the Department of Revenue, we were told that if Newmarket wanted to keep rolling the capital contributions into the operating budget, we would need to change the Town Charter, which is why the charter amendment is on the ballot this year.

In the meantime, we will need to vote on each of these appropriations. They are articles T-5 - T-15 and include appropriations to the Macallen Dam, police vehicle fund, road maintenance fund, storm water management and public works capital reserves. The Town Administrator released a voter's guide explaining each of these funds, which is available on the town website.

You can take a look at these and all the warrant articles below:

Town Warrant 101 - the Police Contract

We are voting on a 3-year police union contract this year. Article T-4 reads:

It was unanimously recommended by BOTH the Town Council and the Budget Committee with no comments or concerns expressed at the Deliberative Session by any residents.

We vote tomorrow. Polls will be open from 7am-7pm at Town Hall. See you there!

Town Meeting 101 - Lamprey Health

Article T-16 is the Petition warrant article which would reinstate funds to Lamprey Health's Senior Transportation program:

Each year, the Town includes a number of social service grants in the budget. The idea being, that these agencies provide a benefit to the community that is clear and quantifiable.

When the budget was originally presented to the Town Council, it was not clear that the typical grant given to Lamprey was designated to the Senior transportation program. It had always been presented as a general grant to the organization. As it was explained at that time, Lamprey is a large property holder in town and the fact that it doesn't pay property taxes based on it's non-profit status, made the councilors feel justified in heeding the advice of the Town Administrator and eliminating the $10,000 contribution. The Council approved the budget in late October.

It wasn't until January that we were aware of any concerns from Lamprey. At the Town Council meeting on January 21, representatives from Lamprey Senior Rides program presented their petition warrant article and explained the necessity of the funds for this program that serves our community. Their explanation was enough to sway the majority of councilors to vote in favor of the warrant article, myself included. I can't speak for anyone else, but the evidence of the benefit to the community was clear and I feel strongly that we should support this program in Newmarket this year.

We vote on Tuesday, March 10. Polls will be open at Town Hall from 7am-7pm.

Town Warrant 101

We vote in less than a week and there are a few warrant articles I'd like to point out. In total, there are 16 warrant articles on the Town ballot. That can be a little overwhelming to review when you're standing in the voting booth. I'll do my best to provide some explanation.

Article T-2 is a proposed amendment to the Town charter. The town's explanation of this warrant article is: 

Since 1991, Town has included contributions to Capital Reserve Funds as an appropriation in the Annual Budget. The NH Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) stated that contributions must be on ballot as separate warrant articles since our charter did not specify another way. This amendment would go back to previous practice.

This comes down to personal preference. In the past, the Town budget included all the contributions to our capital reserve funds (think of those as our savings accounts) within the operating budget. When we go to the polls to approve the budget, those items are already included. The Town would like to continue to operate this way – hence the proposed warrant article. If it's not approved, each contribution to the capital reserves will be broken out individually - as they are in this year's warrant. That means a longer ballot each year, but also the opportunity for voters to express opinions about the individual contributions. 

We vote on March 10. Polls will be open at Town Hall from 7am-7pm.  

Candidates

There have been a lot of conversations recently about candidates and I decided to try and spread the word about the people I am supporting for various boards in our upcoming election on March 10th. Here's my list:

SCHOOL BOARD
As you may know, there are 6 people competing for 2 spots on the School Board. This is the most important race we'll have in a long time, considering the important issues our community will be grappling with over the coming year. We have a facility to deal with, a superintendent to hire, teachers' contracts to negotiate and full day kindergarten to implement. Oh, and we still need to educate the students of Newmarket.

The people running are all good people--but that doesn't mean that I personally think they would be (or have been) good school board members. The dynamics this year are especially tricky and I feel that we need a combination of expertise and composure. Civility will be key. Compromise will be necessary. Fresh voices will be important.

With that in mind, I support Craig Dionne and Kimberly Shelton for School Board. I know them both and have had the opportunity to talk to each of them about their run for the School Board and what they can bring to the table. I trust that they will serve our community well, act with integrity and work hard to move Newmarket forward.

Newmarket Solutions distributed questions to all of the School Board candidates and five have responded so far. You can see their responses here. There was also an article in today's Exeter Newsletter.

TOWN COUNCIL
There are 2 candidates running for 2 seats, so this isn't a contested race. That said, Amy Burns is the only person I can vote for the Town Council. She has been involved in the school debate for a few years and has regularly attended Town Council and Budget Committee meetings. She will be a great new voice on the Town Council and I look forward to working with her.

There is another race for the one-year Council seat. Honestly, my plan is to write in Dan Wright for that seat. He served Newmarket well over the past three years and I have a lot of respect for him, even if we don't always see eye to eye on every issue.

BUDGET COMMITTEE
There are 4 people running for 3 seats. This is one place where significant change has happened over the last few years and it is exciting to see this shift. Dan Hill, Jeff Raab and Dan Smith are the obvious choices for me. They are all reasonable, thoughtful and fiscally responsible people who will serve our community well. An article in the Exeter Newsletter profiled the budget committee candidates last week.
 
We vote in TWO weeks.

Wonder

As I'm watching last night's school board meeting, I'm completely awestruck by our 7th grade team--including the teachers, administrators and most importantly, the students. 

I'm not a teacher, but I can't imagine that it's any small feat for a group of teachers to collectively integrate one book into their curriculum and then, through organic discussion, develop a completely new (and significant) aspect of their curriculum for the current year.

The kids took the reins and presented their plan for an overnight camping trip developed after the students read the book Wonder, to the School Board last night. As one teacher pointed out, "the teachers had really done very little besides provide a place for these students to plan this." This was clearly a student driven project, but wouldn't have happened without the support, guidance and flexibility of this team of teachers.

This is what we mean when we talk about the quality of our administration and teaching staff and the difference they make for our community.