School Board budget vote expected Monday, February 14

posted on 2/11/2022

The Dover School Board is expected to adopt its fiscal year 2023 operating budget at its regular monthly meeting this Monday, Feb. 14.

Before adopting the budget, School Board members will continue deliberations about what will be included in the budget they need to submit to the City Manager by Feb. 17. The School Board has met every Monday since Jan. 10 to discuss and deliberate aspects of the fiscal year 2023 budget.

Superintendent William Harbron and Business Administrator Michael Limanni have presented two budget models for the School Department: a tax cap compliant budget and a "Meeting Obligations" budget. The tax cap compliant budget is $70,971,158, with $45,749,354 raised by property tax. The Meeting Obligations budget, as currently proposed, is $72,249,311, with $47,027,507 to be raised by property tax. As currently proposed, the amount over the estimated tax cap for the school portion of the budget would be $1,278,153.

Both of these budget models are based on the detailed line-item budget document, "Admin Department Budget Request," available on the School Department's Business Office page and the City of Dover's Budget Revealed page. The line-item proposed budget is $73,644,212, with $48,722,408 to be raised by property tax; it is $2,843,930 over the estimated tax cap. This model accounts for salary steps for school staff, but it does include an estimated figure for a new Dover Teachers Union contract that will expire this August.

Limanni and Harbron estimate that 21 full-time positions would need to be cut to reach the tax cap model, including 14 teaching positions. The Meeting Obligations model would maintain the current staffing levels but not fully support the Dover School District's Strategic Plan, Harbron and Limanni said. The Admin Department Budget Request would fund department needs but not add new positions. However, school administrators have requested multiple new positions, which are included as an addendum to the line-item Admin Department Budget. The School Board is considering adding some of these positions to the department budget.

Harbron and Limanni have discussed the challenges of creating the budget for the 2023 fiscal year at previous budget meetings and workshops. The challenges include a $2,017,611 reduction in the statewide education tax revenue, partially offset by an estimated increase of $1,116,071 in state adequate education aid.

The School Department also sees significant increases in its obligations. Currently, Limanni and Harbron estimate an increase of $3,614,000 in commitments, including increases in health insurance, facilities contract, transportation costs, legally required special education services, utility costs and anticipated increases in contract wages.

The City of Dover's Budget Revealed webpage includes videos of all previous budget workshops and meetings and budget documents presented to the School Board. It can be found here.

The Monday, Feb. 14 meeting begins at 7 p.m. in School Board Chambers at the McConnell Center. It will broadcast live on Channel 22 and online at https://dovernh.viebit.com, where it will also be available for on-demand viewing.