City council to vote on 2024-25 school budget

LACONIA — City council will hear details of the school district’s proposed budget at their regular meeting on Monday.

Superintendent Steven Tucker will present the district’s budget with a 5% increase over last year to councilors at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

The proposed budget for 2024-25 works out to $43.16 million, which is $2.05 million more than the budget this year.

At the last council meeting, councilors voted to send a proposed employee retention incentive bonus back to the Finance Committee for further deliberation. Councilors asked the finance committee to explore reasonable conditions for receipt of the bonus, such as a required amount of time to have been employed by the city or a potential requirement for an employee to agree to remain in his or her job for some amount of time.

The retention incentive, as originally proposed, would have applied to employees who work 25 hours or more within every city department other than the school district. The school district and the water department operate on independent budgets, separate from the overall city budget.

The bonus was slated to be a $2,500 payment to all qualified employees.

The water department was able to find the money within their budget to fund payment of the proposed bonus to their employees and the school district would have been responsible for doing the same. 

Mayor Andrew Hosmer expressed strong support for the proposal to provide a retention incentive to city employees in the midst of a recruiting and retention crisis but apprehension regarding the potential for teachers and other school employees to be left behind. 

Tucker said on Friday that a resolution to the city’s proposed retention incentive bonus would not be included in his presentation of the district budget as that allocation would require a separate funding mechanism.

“We are working with city officials to see what we can do,” Tucker said. “I really don’t know how that’s going to look at this time.”

City council has heard in recent months that city department heads are facing a serious problem with hiring qualified employees and keeping them, with numerous employees leaving for jobs in other towns and cities in New Hampshire and elsewhere that pay higher wages.

The police and public works departments have reported difficulties keeping their departments fully staffed, but city leaders have said the problem persists throughout all of the city departments. 

In other business, council will:

• Declare May 2024 to be Mental Health Month

• Consider transferring $30,000 from the welfare reserve fund to the general fund

• Consider a temporary traffic order relative to the Canal Street Summer Block parties 

• Consider a temporary traffic order relative to the Rev, White and Brew Fest and Antique/Classic Car Show

• Consider for approval the collective bargaining agreement for educational assistants employed by the school district 

• Consider authorization for the school department to withdraw $2.3 million from its reserve fund to renovate the locker rooms and the ventilation in the math wing at the high school

• Consider a request from public works to release capital and non-capital reserve funds for city projects 

• Consider a request made by Amanda Falwell to paint or install sculptures on surfaces downtown

• Hear discussion regarding safety concerns pertaining to the Fair and Court streets intersection

• Review the fire department’s EMS billing rates and discuss proposed changes

• Review a request to make a city-owned parcel on Lafayette Street conservation land

• Continue the discussion pertaining to the city’s proposed employee retention incentive

• Consider a request from the Kiwanis to waive parks and recreation fees relative to Bike n’ Board Safety Day

• Continue discussion on the city’s flag policy

• Consider a request to establish a commercial bulk recycling fee at the transfer station