When/Where: Please come out to support this budget cap article (Article 06) at the Town Election on Tuesday, March 11th, from 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM at the Weare Middle School.
What to Do: Vote YES for Article 6 (school district budget cap)
Why: Protect local taxpayers from unsustainable property tax increases by reigning in the Weare School District’s spending problem
Also, vote for Paul Thoman (Selectman) and Lorraine Westfahl (Weare School Board)
Are you upset about your skyrocketing property tax bills?
Until YOU vote to slow the spending, they will continue to rise!
The residents of Weare are suffering from unsustainable tax bill increases. A new state law (RSA 32:5-d) allows citizens to petition for a School District Budget Cap. Here in town, a citizen collected the necessary signatures to put this warrant article on the ballot in March on behalf of those in town who want to return to the more reasonable increases of just a few years ago. The Weare Republican Committee has decided to support this article.
Please come out to support this budget cap article (Article 06) at the Town Election on Tuesday, March 11th, from 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM at the Weare Middle School.
This article would initially cap the Weare School District’s cost per student to $24,767, but each year it will adjust with inflation. This number was calculated by taking the Weare School District’s 2025-2026 proposed budget and dividing it by the number of enrolled students. This budget cap will still allow the school budget to grow by the rate of inflation, but will ensure that the spending remains within control.
Each year 75-80% of your tax bill goes to pay for our schools. The Weare School District is the single biggest driver in the outrageous increase in taxes. They are asking for $20.5 million dollars this year, an almost $860,000 increase over last year’s budget, all while student enrollment has been dropping steadily over the years.
This petition article does NOT cut school funding or reduce provided services; we are still supporting our schools! It only aims to cap the growth of the school district’s budget to each year’s rate of inflation. If there is a true need to spend beyond the budget cap, it can be overridden with a 3/5 majority vote.
The people of Weare cannot afford seeing 8 or 9% budget increases every year, when cost-of-living adjustments and inflation are so much lower (2.5-3.1% this year). Taxes have gone up enough, and the people who chose to live and raise their children here – many of whom are now seniors on fixed incomes – shouldn’t be forced out of their homes by unchecked spending.
If the cost per student continues to rise at the same rate it has over the last 9 years, then in the time it takes an incoming kindergartener to reach the 8th grade, the cost per student would rise to $40,311. We would have spent $285,232 on that single student for K-8, and they would still have 4 more years at John Stark!
Keep reading, for more justification of this petition…
Even with the budget cap in place, the projected cost per student for that same
kindergartener is $31,210 by the time they reach 8th grade, and the total spent on that
single student from K-8 would be $248,455.
Over the last 9 years, the Weare School District student enrollment has dropped by 18%, with more declines projected. That is a substantial number, and you would expect to see correspondingly substantial cuts to the budget. There have been none.
Administration costs are particularly egregious during this large decline in enrollment. Between 2018 and 2023, the cost of administration rose 25.5% to a whopping $1.9 million dollars, while enrollment dropped 10.5%.
Fewer students should not need more administration. To top it all off, between 2018 and 2023, the number of Weare School District students with disabilities increased by 85% from 15.2% of students to 28.1% of students. This is not on par with the NH state average which went from 17.22% to 20.34% (an 18% increase). Special education costs are now about 25% of the total operating budget of the Weare School District. The list of conditions that qualify as a disability and require an IEP (Individualized Education Program) is growing at the same unsustainable rate as the budget.
Weare School District teachers received hefty pay raises when the teacher’s contract passed last year, which brought their pay rate up to a competitive level. Unfilled positions have now been filled, and the Weare School Board has said they are happy with the current situation. Now that we are on par with other school districts in the area, it’s fair to expect that we don’t have any more huge jumps in salary. Future teacher contracts can still rise at the rate of inflation.
There was a large influx of federal and state money during COVID that has only accelerated spending. While it’s true that reduced state funding could increase property tax rates as the local taxpayer makes up the difference, it’s not true that more state funding will fix the escalating tax problem. We can see in the 2 years following the state and federal COVID cash injections of 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 that the operating budget increases by a larger percentage than it had previously.
More state/federal money just drives up spending, even as enrollment declines. This is a spending issue, not a funding issue. The school district is even taking legislative positions that will drive up spending. They are currently supporting the position that free breakfast and lunch should be provided to all students, regardless of income. At what cost to the taxpayer?
Even with a budget cap, the local property taxes can continue to rise, but isn’t that better than state funding decreasing AND having no cap? The budget cap is ultimately a protection for the taxpayer, which is meant to keep spending in check.
Increased state and federal contributions is another way of saying “redistribution of money”. Responsible districts will be burdened into subsidizing irresponsible districts, and increasing state funding will simply subsidize costs that are excessive. There is no amount of funding that can fix a spending problem!
The progressive, pro-tax group ‘NH Schools Fair Funding Project’ has been holding “community conversations” across the state and pushing a narrative of increasing state funding for education. As we speak, NH Democrats are actively working to institute income and sales taxes in order to fund education. Do not be fooled that an income tax will decrease your property taxes. As long as education spending continues to rise at current rates, taxes of one kind or another will continue to rise.
We must demand that public schools stop increasing budgets while enrollment is declining; they cannot continue to raise unlimited amounts of money. Instead of treating public education as a defined benefit that says “We promise you an education no matter the cost”, we should be treating it as a defined contribution where we say “We will give you this fixed amount of money for an education”. The public schools must be made to work within boundaries, and that is the driving idea of this budget cap.
All of this data and more is available via the NH Department of Education’s iPlatform
located at
https://www.education.nh.gov/who-we-are/division-of-educator-and-analytic-resources/iplatform
Please come out to support this budget cap article at the Weare School District Deliberative Session on February 5th at 6:45 PM and the Town election on March 11th, both at the Weare Middle School.
Opponents will attempt to amend this petition on February 5th, defeating its purpose. We need concerned taxpayers to attend the meeting and prevent such amendments.
Links to more information…
The NH Department of Education’s latest numbers are out:
https://www.education.nh.gov/news-and-media/new-hampshires-cost-pupil-continues-upward-trend