Hooksett School Board members are concerned about the kind of education the town’s high school students will receive given budgeting problems in the city of Manchester.

At the School Board meeting on Tuesday, June 2, they did not publicly speculate on whether legal action would be necessary surrounding budget cuts to Manchester schools, but did meet in a nonpublic session after its regular meeting with Hooksett district administrators to discuss legalities of the situation and if the budget cuts have the potential to jeopardize the long-term tuition agreement between the districts.

The Hooksett School District sends its high school students to city high schools in Manchester through a tuition contract. Members of the public and the Hooksett School Board spoke during the public session at the June 2 meeting about concerns they have with the proposed Manchester cuts and the impact of those cuts on local Hooksett students.

Joanne McHugh, a former School Board chairman, urged current board members to send a strongly worded letter to both the Manchester School Board and the city’s aldermen, expressing concern about the budget cuts.

“I think it’s high time we put them on notice,” McHugh said.

Maura Ouellette, another former Hooksett School Board chairman, said the Manchester budget process is starting to play like a broken record.

“It seems that every year we’ve watched the Manchester budget process holding our breath, wondering what will make it and what programs or staffing will fall by the wayside,” Ouellette said. “It’s time for Hooksett to flex its financial muscle and demand that Manchester live up to its end of the agreement.”

Hooksett sends about 500 students to Manchester schools each year at a cost of about $7,000 per student per year. Additionally, the Hooksett district is obligated to contribute about more than $900,000 a year to the Manchester district to help pay off old renovation loans.

Local parents said at the Hooksett board meeting that the Manchester district is not holding up its end of the bargain to provide all students with adequate education and extracurricular opportunities.

Marie Papp, a parent of a Hooksett sophomore at Central High School expressed her worry that program cuts and staff layoffs will jeopardize her child’s education. “They will be absolutely slaughtering the music programs.

A concert band without concerts? A marching band without marching? What’s the point?” Papp said. “Please  on behalf of our district, on behalf of our kids, be vocal. The cuts that have been proposed are huge. They are deep and they are wide.”

Hooksett Superintendent Charles “Phil” Littlefield said he is in daily contact with Manchester Superintendent Tom Brennan about the status of the Manchester budget.

“On Thursday, we thought the (Manchester) aldermen might be convinced or receptive to changing that budget number. As a result of an opinion of the city solicitor … the aldermen cannot amend that amount even if they wanted to. The only way to add money would be through a supplemental budget appropriation,” Littlefield said.

Littlefield emphasized that administrators are keeping abreast of the situation and would deal with issues as they arise. “We need to reassure the public that we’re keenly aware of what the provisions of the tuition agreement are and all of us are committed to making sure the provisions of that agreement are enforced,” he said.