In a break from tradition, Windham will hold its town and school district deliberative sessions on the same day. And this year, the meetings, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 6, will be conducted at a new venue – the auditorium of the new high school.

School district business will be conducted first, starting at 9 a.m., followed by the town meeting. The high school is located at 64 London Bridge Road.

The meetings will give voters an opportunity to discuss and reword warrant articles before forwarding them to the Election Day ballots.

The school warrant is light, with only four articles up for discussion. The largest of these is the school district’s 2010-11 operating budget.

The School Board is proposing a budget totaling $41,107,014. If voters reject it at the polls in March, a default budget – last year’s budget along with certain adjustments – of $40,846,000 would go into effect.

Voters are also being asked to approve a new three-year contract between the school district and the instructional assistants’ union that calls for increases in salaries and benefits. The estimated increases are $21,674 in 2010-11, $50,242 in 2011-12 and $57,512 in 2012-13.

School officials are asking voters to approve spending $160,000 for architectural and engineering fees to complete a master plan that would meet the district’s long-term building needs. The funds are allocated in the town’s capital improvement program.

Voters are also being asked to approve the creation of a capital reserve fund to pay for future facility needs, placing $650,072 into the fund, and designating the School Board as agents to expend the fund. These funds would also be allocated in the town’s CIP plan.

Town warrant
On the town side, there are a dozen warrant articles subject to debate.

Selectmen are proposing an operating budget for the year that is lower than the default budget – the previous budget plus certain adjustments. The proposed budget totals $11,881,965, while the default budget is $11,995,139.

The next largest spending item is a proposed highway facility on town-owned land next to the transfer station. A warrant article calls for spending $960,000 for engineering and constructing the facility, including a salt shed, garage and associated site improvements. Selectmen would withdraw $350,000 from a capital reserve fund.

Recognizing that residents are living in a difficult economy, the total town appropriations that selectmen have proposed represent a zero percent increase from last year’s spending.

Other key articles relate to the town-owned Searles Building, increased property tax exemptions for the elderly and the legal definition of marriage.

The proposed new exemptions, as allowed by state law, are: $160,000 for residents 65 years of age up to 75 years; $190,000 for residents 75 years of age up to 80 years; and a total exemption for residents 80 years of age or older. To qualify, homeowners must meet certain criteria.

A pair of articles relate to the Searles building. One article seeks to withdraw $20,000 from the Searles Special Revenue Fund to pay for marketing and maintenance costs. The other article seeks to pull out $12,160 from the same fund to continue making loan payments for renovations and repairs made to the building’s west wing in 2003.

A petition submitted by Jeff Spanos and other residents calls for the town to approve a resolution that New Hampshire citizens should be allowed to vote on an amendment to the state’s constitution that defines marriage.