Some Candia residents say they’re angry after a recent letter warning about “significant reductions” in the school budget was sent home with students.

“I think it’s outrageous,” said Ingrid Byrd, the School Board representative to the Budget Committee. “They have an absolute right to notify parents about the deliberative session, but they don’t have a right to send a letter home with children ... urging parents to vote in a certain way.”

Henry Moore Elementary School Assistant Principal Jim Lewis said that during the week before a Jan. 22 meeting, a letter from the Candia Parent Teacher Organization was sent home with students telling them about that upcoming informational meeting. The letter included the names of PTO members Emily Roster and Kristine Pouliot, and Lewis said the letter was a PTO decision and not an official newsletter from the school.

School Board member Dave Fischer said one side of the flier has a brief of the upcoming school budget, which was recommended at $7,313,239 by the Budget Committee. The wording on the letter sent home with children warns that this budget is more than $177,000 less than what the School Board recommended.

“The most significant of these recommended reductions are the elimination of two fulltime teachers and a reduction in psychological services,” the Some Candia residents say they’re angry after a recent letter warning about “significant reductions” in the school budget was sent home with students. “I think it’s outrageous,” said Ingrid Byrd, the School Board representative to the Budget Committee. “They have an absolute right to notify parents about the deliberative session, but they don’t have a right to send a letter home with children ... urging parents to vote in a certain way.”

Henry Moore Elementary School Assistant Principal Jim Lewis said that during the week before a Jan. 22 meeting, a letter from the Candia Parent Teacher Organization was sent home with students telling them about that upcoming informational meeting. The letter included the names of PTO members Emily Roster and Kristine Pouliot, and Lewis said the letter was a PTO decision and not an official newsletter from the school.

School Board member Dave Fischer said one side of the flier has a brief of the upcoming school budget, which was recommended at $7,313,239 by the Budget Committee. The wording on the letter sent home with children warns that this budget is more than $177,000 less than what the School Board recommended.

“The most significant of these recommended reductions are the elimination of two fulltime teachers and a reduction in psychological services,” the letter states, and it mentions that the Jan. 22 meeting was intended as an informational session “to help parents better understand how the Deliberative Session will be conducted and how your School Board prepared the recommended 2009-1020 school budget.”

It closes with the statements “There is no substitution for a proper education and they are only our children for a short time. These children are in fact our future!”

But Fischer noted that nowhere on the letter are parents told how to vote.

In a landmark 1973 case, the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals eventually ruled that the City of Boston School Committee broke the law when it sent home some 100,000 fliers with students urging parents to vote against a busing and redistricting plan. While some committee members said they think the recent Candia flier might be illegal for similar reasons, it does not appear to tell parents to cast a vote either way on the issue.

“It may have pushed it right to the line, but it’s not over the line,” Fischer said. “I don’t see where (a vote) is pushed one way or the other.”

Telephone messages left for Pouliot were not returned. Lewis said that as of Jan. 21, the letter had not generated any complaints from parents.