By Russ Choma
Correspondent

Goffstown voters will have just six warrant articles on their school district ballot, but of the five that will be discussed at the upcoming deliberative session, at least two have the potential to make or break the district’s long range plans.

Kindergarten land
Although voters approved a public kindergarten for Goffstown last year, the issue is once again returning to the ballot, in the form of Article 5. Like last year, this year’s effort could very well be a “make or break” scenario for the fate of public kindergarten.

Specifically, Article 5 asks voters to authorize the school district to accept any gifts of property. School Board Chairman Ellen Vermokowitz said this was, in fact, an attempt to secure new land for the kindergarten to be built on.

“The article’s intent is to allow the district to accept land for kindergarten, and at this time, this would be the town-owned land we call the Glen Lake property,” she said.

The Glen Lake property is a 58-acre parcel of land off of Goffstown’s Elm Street, near Glen Lake, that the selectmen have agreed to shave at least 15 acres off to give the school district. The land was purchased by the town in 1974 and has been left undeveloped and unused other than for recreational purposes.

The land originally slated for a kindergarten facility is a 10-acre parcel off of Tibbett’s Hill Road. That property was offered to the town for free by a developer who is planning to build a housing development on the surrounding land. Last spring, neighbors to the housing development and proposed kindergarten filed a lawsuit against the planning board’s approval of the combined project. That case remains tied up in court, and school officials have had to put their kindergarten planning on hold and indefinitely suspend the opening date, originally set for September of 2006.

According to school officials, the new land is being sought because the state has informed the district that if they do not have a firm opening date by June, Goffstown will not qualify for special kindergarten construction aid. That aid amounts to 75 percent of the school’s $3.3 million cost.

Under the plan voters approved last March, Goffstown taxpayers will only have to pay $256,000, or a one-time tax impact of 52 cents, which appears on this year’s tax rate.

School operating budget
Aside from the kindergarten issue, the other major item on the ballot which voters will see at the deliberative session is the operating budget. The school board’s proposed budget is $29,566,959.

If rejected, the budget will operate under a default budget of $28,929,811. The default budget represents a freeze on all spending increases over last year’s budget, with the exception of contractually obligated increases.

Other warrant articles
Also appearing on the ballot:
Article 2: The expenditure of $187,500 in impact fees to expand the high school’s athletic fields and parking lot. Impact fees are charged to the developers of new properties and are limited in their use to improvements needed because of new growth in town.

“The funds already exist and if not used, would be lost,” said Vermokowitz.

Article 3: The appropriation of $25,000 to create a study committee focused on Bartlett Elementary School’s space needs. Vermokowitz said the goal is to study how best to maximize the use of the school which school officials say is suffering from overcrowding.

Article 4: The appropriation of $300,000 into a newly created capital reserve fund to address any needs the Bartlett School study committee identifies. This money would not come directly from taxpayers, but would come from any money left in district coffers at the end of the fiscal year.

While it is not uncommon for school districts to find themselves with unspent money at the end of the year, thanks to a change in the amount of state aid given to the district or unexpected cost savings, the money is not guaranteed. If there is no cash surplus, no funds will be allocated. If voters reject this article, and there is unspent money, state law mandates the money be returned to the tax rate, unless voters approve its expenditure at a special election.

Article 1 is the election of school board members. There are three open seats, each with a three-year term, and to date there are only three candidates. Incumbents Philip Pancoast and Sara Ann Sarette are running unopposed to retain their seats, and Karen Pratt is running unopposed for the seat currently filled by Marie Morgan. Article 1 will not be up for discussion at the deliberative session.

The deliberative session will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 7, in the Dr. Craig Hieber Auditorium at Goffstown High School. At the deliberative session, voters may change the wording or the funding of particular articles. On March 8, voters will actually cast ballots for or against the articles and elect school board members.