Barnstead voters support busing students to PMHS

Alton residents will be glad to hear that their neighbors in Barnstead approved an annual operating budget of $9,511,882 at their school district meeting held Saturday at Barnstead Elementary School (BES).

The budget originally presented to voters was only $9.4-million but the article was amended on the floor of the meeting to the one the School Board had originally requested. It includes $2.9-million to pay for the district’s portion of the operation of Prospect Mountain High School (PMHS).

The high school, which is located in Alton, is shared by the two school districts under the state’s only Joint Maintenance Agreement (JMA). If Barnstead voters had cut their budget to the point where it impacted their portion of PMHS’s operating costs, Alton would have also had to alter its share. (Alton is an "official ballot", or SB-2, district so its voters okayed their $11.8-million school district operating budget Election Day.)

While Barnstead’s PMHS operating costs were never in question during Saturday’s budget debate — the $2.9-million in high school support was clearly stated in both budgets that were considered — PMHS was still part of the discussion.

The difference between the School Board’s budget figure and the one suggested by the Budget Committee included about $100,000 to pay the cost of busing local students to the high school, as well as about $55,000 for an assistant principal for BES.

School Board Chairman Keith Couch said he could recall the days before PMHS was built when Barnstead students were bussed to as many as seven different local high schools, which the youngsters attended as “tuitioned” students. “Now we’re only asking you to send them to one high school and I strongly urge us to support this.” Couch said there were three buses that traveled back and forth from the high school daily.

Resident Bill Gosse suggested that Couch change his amendment to separate the busing and the principal issues. “We need to bus these kids but I’d like not to see us not use that and pass over the issue of the assistant principal,” he said. “Maybe you could amend your motion so we could take each one up separately. They’re completely different.”

“I’d prefer to keep them together,” Couch replied, and the audience applauded.

Kevin Morrison said the Budget Committee had not come easily to the idea that busing costs could be cut. “It was done by a vote of 3-to-2, with one abstention,” he said. Those who supported the move noted that school districts are not mandated by state statute to provide busing and that getting students to PMHS “should be the responsibility of the parents.”

But other residents disagreed.

One woman said that the working hours she and her husband had would make taking their children to PMHS virtually impossible.

Another resident suggested that if a car with students traveling to or from school got into an accident, the district could be held liable for not providing busing to PMHS.

The motion to accept the School Board’s budget figure passed easily.

Several other articles also related to PMSH, which were already approved by Alton voters, needed affirmation in Barnstead to become effective.

The voters easily approved a new three-year contract with the Prospect Mountain Teachers Association and okayed setting aside $10,000 for an expendable trust fund for unanticipated general maintenance at the high school, just as Alton residents had done.

An article that was altered during the Alton school district deliberative session was also briefly discussed. The PMHS board originally requested the $10,000 item — $5,000 from each district — to fund an investigation on how to alter the state’s JMA laws. The board members wanted to be able to hold public hearings and other meetings that could be attended by residents of both districts, rather than duplicating everything in the two communities.

The Alton voters had “zeroed-out” the article and it passed on Election Day but with no funds.

The article was also similarly changed on the floor of the Barnstead meeting, but School Board Chair Couch still asked voters to approve the measure. “According to the JMA we have to have like articles in order for them to pass,” he said. “This would not change our JMA. We’re just seeking to review the statutes that apply to JMAs to allow us to hold joint meetings or budget hearings.”

“If we are able to do that we’d still have to come back to the voters of Alton and Barnstead for approval, and it would need a two-thirds vote,” he concluded

The article passed easily in a voice vote.