Candia’s School Board and Budget Committee agreed on every single number in the 2008-09 proposed school operating budget for the second year in a row, the Budget Committee accepting the School Board’s budget as is at $7,486,408.

The proposed operating budget is less than the $7,526,161 default budget by about $39,000.

The School Board showed restraint this year to make room in taxpayers’ pocketbooks and wallets for the proposed joint middle school with Auburn, according to Candia School Board Chairman Karen Smith.

“Because we were coming with the middle school proposition, we felt really strongly that we couldn’t be asking for more money in the operating budget of the existing school,” said Smith.

Overall, the proposed budget shows about a 3 percent increase over last year, the majority of that increase coming from a jump in high school tuition of about $300,000. The rest of the budget is level-funded, Budget Committee and School Board members said.

There are a few different factors contributing to that, said Ed Caito, the School Board’s representative to the Budget Committee, one being the opening of the Bedford High School, which opened with the ninth and 10th grades only this year, allowing Bedford high schoolers with only two years left to finish their schooling in Manchester.

“With Bedford moving out, Manchester is spreading its costs over a smaller base of children, and has not been able to reduce its operating expenses at the same rate,” said Caito.

He added the graduating class from the Moore School is particularly large this year at 68 students, thereby increasing overall costs in addition to the rise in cost per student.

The Moore School has been able to handle the extra students and associated rising costs by keeping class sizes fairly large and only providing the essentials for education, Caito said.

The warrant articles The only disagreement the two groups had on warrant articles going to voters is on the tuition agreement for the proposed joint middle school with Auburn, which the Budget Committee voted not to recommend.

The issue was not discussed at public hearing, Penfield said. The article came in late and Caito motioned for no discussion prior to the Budget Comittee’s vote because everyone had made up their minds.

“I didn’t think it was a financially astute move for the town. I did not feel that it was the wisest way for us to invest our money,” Penfield said.

For Candia’s share of projected capital costs and tuition, the warrant article asks for $296,708.

Candia School Board members have been working closely with Auburn’s School Board on the joint venture. Last year, voters in both towns approved the planning and engineering costs for Team Design Inc. to design the school.

The two boards have hosted public input sessions in both towns to get community input on the designs, building costs, payments on the bond and operating costs for the school.

Under the proposed tuition agreement for the $25 million project, Candia would pay tuition to Auburn to help with payments on the 30-year bond, which Auburn voters will weigh in on just a few days later on March 14.

If the the tuition agreement fails in Candia, the vote will make Auburn’s bond article null.

Based on current enrollment figures, Candia would pay 38 percent of the capital and operating costs, with Auburn taxpayers absorbing the remaining 62 percent. Depending on the growth in either town prior to the school’s opening, that cost split could change.

Caito called the joint middle school a proposed substantial change in the education of Candia children, saying the larger number of students would increase programming opportunities and allow for a smoother transition to high school.

A special warrant article calls on voters to approve a generator system for the Moore School amounting to $91,885. Further, the article says, the School Board will apply for grants to help offset some of that cost. Another asks for $150,000 for the school’s capital reserve fund.

Teacher contracts Voters must also decide whether to pass a three–year collective bargaining agreement for $1,900 in salary and benefit increases for each Moore School teacher.

The warrant article asks voters to approve $83,347 overall in salaries for 2008-09, a number that will go up about 5 percent to $87,742 in 2009-10 and will remain the same for the following year.

The lower number in the first year reflects a decrease in health insurance costs to the school district for the coming year, said school district Business Administrator Karen Lessard.

The number for the second and third year of the agreement, $87,742, is a projection to account for when health insurance goes back up again.

“Legally, we have to give an estimated amount for each of the years the bargaining agreement is in place,” said Lessard, adding passing of the agreement would likely change the numbers slightly.

After several negotiating sessions starting in December, Caito said the School Board and teachers went to outside help to make deadlines for the deliberative session of School District Meeting on Saturday, Feb. 2, at 10:30 a.m.

“Unfortunately this time, we were not able to reach an agreement on our own, and we did need to bring in a third party to mediate,” Caito said. After only one session of mediation, a deal was struck on Jan. 3.

In the past decade, collective bargaining agreements have dealt in flat dollar amounts rather than percentage increases because of what Penfield said were rampant salary hikes.

“We consistently voted down teacher contracts for a while and we did it because with the percentage increase the teachers were getting, in the opinion I would say of people in town, the raises were out of control,” said Penfield.