COVID effects permeate Laconia school budget

LACONIA — With an unprecedented school year wrapping up, school officials are budgeting for the 2021-22 school year, when they expect COVID’s presence will continue to be felt, but hope it will be far less disruptive than last year.

“Planning for this fall will be like planning for last fall,” Superintendent Steve Tucker said.

Nevertheless, the pandemic will be affecting students and their instruction for some time to come, he continued, and that will necessarily affect how money is allocated in the School District’s budget.

Tucker made that point as he gave the Laconia School Board a 30-minute overview of the proposed $43 million spending package. Of that total, $21.9 million is to be raised by property taxes, an increase of $732,930 — or 2 percent.

The increase sought falls within the limitations imposed by the city’s property tax cap, Tucker told the board.

Tucker said the budget framework reflects the priority that the district places on student wellness, co-curricular activities, enrichment programs, tracking students’ progress, along with math and literacy courses, and professional development for teachers.

Federal COVID relief money is not included in the budget, Tucker said. The district has received $3.9 million from the COVID relief package which was passed last December. In addition, the district is expecting to receive about $9 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan that was passed in March.

School districts have received millions in dollars in aid to stave off budget cuts, pay for unanticipated expenses for hospital-grade cleaning, face masks and other personal protective equipment, retrofit classrooms for in-person learning, or provide for remedial instruction for students who have fallen behind academically since the pandemic struck 14 months ago.

Some students have spent up to 40 days in quarantine and isolation, either because they contracted COVID, or were found to have been in close contact with someone who had.

More than three-quarters — 76 percent — of the budget is earmarked for salaries and benefits, Tucker said. Included in that is an average 3.5 percent increase in salaries for members of the Laconia Teachers Association, and the Education Assistants of Laconia, the district’s two main bargaining units. Also included is a 22 percent increase in what the district will be paying into the state retirement fund for teachers, an increase which the district is legally required to pay.

The increases in salaries and benefits total $1.3 million, Tucker said.

Teachers in the LEA are working under a five-year contract which will expire next June, he noted.

The School Board is scheduled to present the budget to the City Council at its meeting on Monday. Under the City Charter, it is the City Council which sets the School Department’s total appropriation.