By Paul Conyers
The Londonderry Budget Committee met last week and prioritized the issue of where to prioritize school spending following the release of the Capital Improvement Program.
The issue of school debt was related to its expiration over the next few years. School District CFO, Peter Curro, stated expiring debt was not necessarily a good thing. Expired debt represents bond money not being spent on the schools. While this removes costs from the town budget, it also raises questions regarding how money is being spent, especially with the recently proposed Capital Improvement Program.
“Good news is you don’t have any debt to put in the budget” Curro said. “But you’ve also got the other set of the coin, which is the district managing, its facilities, and infrastructure so that it’s periodically updating its needs to meet enrollment and changes in technology.”
He also noted that approving a bond is not equivalent to spending that bond money. Local taxpayers only feel an impact once the money has been used by the school or any public agency. Committee members expressed concern over whether school money is being spent in the right place, especially at Moose Hill School, where Curro identified one of the larger spending issues in the future 2024 budget.
“Moose Hill has a real problem; it needs four regular education classrooms and money spent for leaking programs” according to Curro, who believed that such a problem needs to be fixed within the next year, followed by the anticipated reconstruction of the High School.
Committee Chair, Steve Breault, briefly over viewed decisions recently made by the Capital Improvement Program Committee. The Program highlights essential investments needed for Londonderry schools over the next 20 years as some improvements will receive present above others in the town budget.
He explained immediate student safety issues have the highest priority in the Capital Improvement Plan. Proposed designs already have that safety in mind. “If we redesign these schools, it’s going to be a safer design,” Breault said. However, the Committee hopes to prioritize spending according to the value a school project has in budgetary terms. “What it comes down to is the question of cost-savings. If there’s a cost-savings here, this is a higher priority.” This means a desire to push back several urgent issues unrelated to safety in the Capital Improvement Plan.
Finally, Breault expressed his desire to give the Planning Board, along with the School Board, an opportunity to review spending priorities for the Capital Improvement Program.
The 2022-2023 Londonderry budget expects to take in more money than it spends. The current school spending plan is available online for public review and is still subject to further modification before final approval. Extensive spending in the proposed plan will not be included in the budget until 2024.
The Londonderry Budget Committee has a two-day meeting scheduled for Aug. 24 and 25. The discussion for each day will begin at 6 p.m., each day.