Reports say Manchester aldermen already have 'significant authority' over school budget
New reports from the Manchester city clerk and solicitor's offices suggest making the local school district a city department wouldn't give the mayor or aldermen much more power over the school budget then they already have.
The reports appear as an agenda item for Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, scheduled for 7 p.m. at City Hall.
An effort to ask Manchester voters if they support making the school district a department of the city, a topic debated on and off for decades, was given new life recently when Mayor Jay Ruais broke a 7-7 tie to send a request to look at either making the Manchester School District a city department or granting the mayor the power to set the district's budget to the aldermen for study, ahead of possible placement on the November election ballot.
While the school district isn't a city department, aldermen must approve its budget.
For the matter to appear on a municipal ballot this November, aldermen need to take a final vote on the matter by Tuesday, June 3.
City Clerk Matt Normand and City Solicitor Emily Rice were asked to research the topic ahead of a vote on the matter, with the understanding that the goal was to give the mayor more say over the school budget, including line-item veto power.
In her report, Rice writes that she investigated the issue through the lens of establishing authority of the aldermen over the budget of the Manchester School District.
'It is the opinion of this office that the Mayor and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA) possess significant authority in this regard under both the current charter and applicable state law,' Rice writes.
Rice points out the mayor has 'extensive authority over the form, procedure and adoption of the city's annual budget,' and the school district budget is subject to the approval of the BMA.
'If the BMA rejects the budget as submitted, the school committee is required to 'submit a revised budget which shall not exceed the maximum dollar amount established by the board of mayor and aldermen,'" Rice writes, quoting the city's Charter. 'The Charter contains no language which would, after rejection by the BMA, permit the submission of (a) school department budget which exceeds the maximum amount established by the BMA.
'It does not appear that seeking to amend the Charter to make the school district a department of city government would be an effective means of attempting to add to the city's significant existing authority over the school district budget.'
Rice adds any such amendment would be subject to numerous controlling state statutes and administrative rules governing the authority and responsibilities of local school boards, school districts and superintendents.
In a report on his on findings, Normand writes he was asked to present to the board a comparison of charter sections related to the school district within the current City Charter (known as the 1997 Charter) and the previous City Charter (known as the 1983 Charter), to the extent that the district had previously been considered a department.
Normand also reviewed the 1996 Charter Commission minutes.
'It is clear that the commission was very deliberate in maintaining the same level of authority for both the district and the BMA outlined in the 1983 City Charter while making minor changes they believed would clarify responsibilities of each,' Normand writes. 'In summary, there is no appreciable difference between the two charters as it relates to the school district. There is no section of the 1983 City Charter that represents the district as a department; in fact, the 1997 City Charter expanded the seats on the Board of School Committee from twelve members to fourteen members (at-large positions), reiterated that the school district budget shall constitute a single line item, yet gave future mayors the ability to veto all acts of the aldermen including actions related to the entire budget or any line item thereof, for the first time.'
Efforts to bring city schools under the umbrella of city government have fallen short over the past 20 years.
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