Voters at town meetings this week are facing some tough choices.
Schools across the state have to find ways to trim their budgets because one expense is outpacing the others: Health Insurance.
In Concord, the rise in those costs is forcing budget cuts for next year.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman has more.
At a recent meeting of the Concord school board, officials told the 100 parents gathered that they had to cut the budget.
One of the options on the table included closing a small, neighborhood school.
In addition they proposed laying off several teachers from high school to elementary school.
Terry Wiggin, the district’s chief financial officer, says because enrollments of younger students have declined in recent years, the elementary school would bear the brunt of the layoffs.
”There are a total of 5 classroom teachers proposed, at a little over 161,000 dollars. ….. remember earlier, when I showed the enrollment, that it is based on that declining enrollment, and again, I mentioned that we’ve had a decline of over 300 students plus over the last few years.”
School board officials say several factors have influenced their decisions.
For instance, state aid to the district could fall by about 3 million dollars next year.
But employee benefits are also expected to take a bigger bite out of the 2005 budget.
Most of that is due to an expected 17 percent increase in health insurance costs.
Concord School Board Superintendent Chris Rath says the board has tried to hold the line on spending.
So, she says, there’s really only one category to tap for real savings.
49 47 …75% of our budget is personnel costs. So, to make significant reductions, as the board directed us, it needs to come from personnel. 49 115
Parents at the meeting resented the board's decision to layoff 5 elementary teachers and close the Dewey school.
Diane Heitmiller's child now has to change schools, and the classes will be bigger.
”now to say you’re taking away two teachers from Dewey & Kimball… is going to be a tragedy if we come back in September, and find out that we need additional teachers there because your numbers are wrong.”
Concord isn’t the only school district facing decreasing state aid, and rapidly rising health insurance costs.
In fact, most towns in the state are reporting they expect health insurance costs to go up 20 percent or more in the coming year.
Dr. Mark Joyce of New Hampshire School Administrator’s Association says these rising health costs are a growing problem for every school district.
”At no point are wages increasing at that level. They’ve been quite modest in recent years, 2, 3 percent raises. But when another part of your budget jumps 20%, that dollar amount becomes quite significant.”
School districts across the state are finding ways to make do with the increasing health insurance costs.
But decisions made this week are only for the year ahead.
Next year, school boards will face the problem of rising health care costs all over again.
