Manchester school board sends $246 million budget to aldermen for approval

Feb. 23—Manchester school board members have voted to recommend the district's proposed $246 million Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal be sent to aldermen for approval.
The vote followed a public hearing Thursday night at West High School on the budget that failed to entice a single member of the public to speak in favor or against the proposal.
Also recommended for approval was the school district's 2026 School Food and Nutrition Budget of $6.3 million and the 2025 Capital Improvements Projects (CIP) plan of $6.6 million.
According to Superintendent of Schools Jennifer Chmiel, the budget supports 11,865 Manchester School District students, as well as services at charter and parochial schools. It also supports several areas of student success, including educational programming, hiring and retention, improved measures of college and career readiness, improved graduation rates and the start of priority one facilities projects.
"On behalf of the district, I would like to thank the Board of School Committee for approving our tax-cap compliant budget proposal," Chmiel said Friday. "I have the responsibility of preparing a responsible, tax cap-compliant budget that funds our priorities and continues to meet the needs of our students. We remain one of the lowest-funded districts in the state, thousands below the average in per-pupil spending. This forces us to be diligent, thoughtful and creative in seeking efficiencies.
Parameters of tax cap
"We worked hard in developing this budget to ensure we are meeting the needs of students while working within the parameters of the tax cap."
The school budget proposal contains $112.1 million in salaries (a $10.7 million increase over last year), $11.3 million in transportation costs (a $3.7 million decrease from last year due to the transition to in-house home-to-school busing), $11.7 million in debt service and $9.7 million to cover a $320,000 increase in costs for city services, including a 3% increase in costs for the Aramark custodial services contract and 5% increase for school resource officers from Manchester Police.
The $6.6 million in CIP projects includes $300,000 for playground replacement, $1.2 million for the purchase of 11 buses and $250,000 for information technology network infrastructure costs.
Manchester operates under a cap on property taxes established by a voter-approved amendment to the city charter. Generally referred to as a tax cap, the provision limits the total amount of money raised from property taxes, rather than the tax rate itself.
Before the vote
City and school budgets for the next fiscal year can increase by 4.27%.
Prior to Thursday's vote, school board member Leslie Want raised the idea of sending to aldermen both a tax-cap compliant budget and a so-called "needs" budget, listing what the district would need to adequately deliver services to students, something administrators did in prior years.
"In the past, we've always presented a needs budget," Want said. "We didn't do that last year, and we're not doing that again this year. I'm only asking because, last night, in a committee meeting, it was brought to the Student Conduct Committee's attention that we have a school that's unable to provide all the needs for all the students because they don't have full-time personnel to deal with those needs.
"I mean, I know that the district's doing its best, but I just want to say that I'm disappointed that we don't have more to offer our kids, because I do believe that Manchester has some of the highest needs in the state."
"Highest diversity, highest level of need," confirmed Chmiel.
Mayor's comments
Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais reminded board members of the compensation study done on salaries of employees on the city side — which concluded raises are due for Manchester to retain and recruit employees — and the importance of staying within the tax cap.
"I'd be very careful characterizing this as a political will conversation — there are very real fiscal realities that we face," Ruais said. "I wouldn't characterize it in a political sense, more just the reality of budgeting and the global view that we all have to have when we're putting forward budgets."
pfeely@unionleader.com

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