This took away the choice for voters going to the polls in March to decide if they want the conservative budget prepared by the Budget Committee after months of work and compromises.

Perhaps even more shocking is the fact that Superintendent, Marie Ross admits to having lobbied other board members to switch their vote after the debate had been closed by the Moderator.  Board member Bruce Davol says he switched his vote after her arguments.  This occurred after the hand vote was challenged and a ballot vote was being prepared.

The amendment to the budget was proposed by Dean Cascadden, Superintendent of Bow School District and former employee of the Newfound Area School District.  He offended several committee members by commenting that they were not representative of the District due to their sex and age.  Even though there was a large contingent of teachers and staff present, the amendment passed by the 3 vote differential.  Of the 13 District officials seated at the front, only Ross, Campbell and Cheney voted to undermine the Budget Committee and limit the choice of the voters.

This move seemed hypocritical since the same people had objected to the previous article which seeks to allow the Budget Committee to prepare the default budget.  They argued that having two bodies prepare separate budgets would offer voters a choice.  They then proposed and voted to have only the budgets prepared by the School Board to be presented to the voters in March.

Many of the citizens present seemed outraged and tired of hearing excuses from the Superintendent as to why $16,000+ per student was not enough for her to run the district.  Most have vowed to vote down every warrant article presented by the District this year with the exception of the operating budget where the default is slightly higher than the proposed budget.