I ask for support of the electorate as the At-Large Representative to the Newfound School Board on March 9th. Work I have started on your behalf remains.
A conservative candidate, I seek long-term ways to prevent uncontrolled growth of our school budget while fulfilling our socially responsible obligation to educate our decreasing student population. I seek to balance our legal obligation while minimizing pain to taxpayers.
It is predicted by legislative pundits “in-the-know” NEXT year’s state budget will be short by $600 Million. A staggering number indeed.
Know those funds will come from you and me in the form of higher fees and taxes –just to stay even! If you’ve registered your vehicle since August 2009 when the newest fees took effect, you know what I’m talking about. There’s more coming.. The stealthy-passed “LLC Tax” by the Governor and cohorts is an example of how we can all expect to be precision-targeted.
We have a stable education environment at Newfound where we fall in the upper third of most categories, but continue to show need of improvement.
On Friday, Feb. 6, 2009 Superintendent Marie Ross, School Board Chair Mary Campbell and School Board Budget Committee Rep. Sue Cheney all voted for an amendment which raised the proposed budget to the virtually the same amount as the default budget (within 1%.)
Newfound is an SB 2 District; it is also a District that voted a number of years ago to adopt RSA 32 for budgetary purposes. The voters have placed control of the development of the school budget in the hands of a Budget Committee subject to the wishes of the voters at the first deliberative session and voting in March by the district voters.
