The annual Cornish School District Meeting will be held Saturday, March 11, at 1 p.m. at the Cornish Elementary School gym to act on the budget and related articles. Election of school district officers will take place by ballot from 10 a.m to 7 p.m. that day at the school. Town Meeting will be held Tuesday, March 14, at noon at the school gym for the budget and most other business. Municipal officers will be elected that day by ballot voting from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the gym.

Cornish — Residents this year will vote on a school budget that includes Cornish operating on its own as the new School Administrative Unit 100, and also consider a Town Meeting proposal to buy body cameras for the police department.

The proposed school budget of just under $3.6 million, including money for the school lunch fund and a federal projects fund, includes money to create office space for a part-time business manager and superintendent at the Cornish Elementary School as the town breaks away from the Claremont-area SAU 6 after more than 50 years in that district.

Residents voted to go it alone at Town Meeting last year, and SAU 100 will start operating in July for the 2017-18 school year.

Cornish has arranged to contract with the Plainfield school district for part-time budget and superintendent services from officials there.

The proposed budget includes about $203,000 in proposed SAU services, down $12,000 from the current school year, but Cornish School Board Chairman Justin Ranney says that includes about $30,000 in one-time costs to set up an office with equipment at the Cornish school.

“Once we’re through with those one-time fees, we should see a bit of savings in the SAU, and I think the town really felt it was just going to give the school more flexibility,” Ranney said. “As much as cost savings, that was the big push.”

The preK-8 school has about 88 students this year, with enrollment projections for the upcoming year “very close or the same,” he said. Cornish has school choice for high school. The school’s proposed general fund budget of $3.43 million marks a $19,000, or 0.6 percent (little more than half a percent), increase in spending.

With the small increase combined with a roughly $90,000 drop in adequacy aid in funding from Concord, Ranney said the school tax rate is expected to increase by about 45 cents per $1,000 of valuation, or $112 on a $250,000 home.

In school elections, School Board member Cathy Parks is not running again. Alexys Wilbur, the mother of a kindergartener and a pre-schooler, is the lone candidate for the seat.

School Board member Melissa Drye, who was appointed last year when Holly Taft stepped down from the board, is running unopposed for a new three-year term.

On the town side, overall proposed spending of $1.4 million marks a $199,000 decrease from last year, in large part because 2016 Town Meeting voters approved a new dump truck and more than a $100,000 in paving.

Among the articles on the warrant are $120,000 in turnout gear, such as air packs, for the fire department, though $114,000 is to be covered by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Those FEMA grants are great, but a lot of that equipment has a shelf life, and when you go to replace it, it’s pricey,” said longtime Selectman John Hammond. “So what we try to do is when those grants are available, we apply for them.”

Also on the warrant is a $13,500 request for a propane generator at the highway garage to help power the facility in case of an emergency.

Another article seeks $3,000 to purchase body cameras for Cornish’s police department.

“I would say that might generate some discussion,” Hammond said. “Some people have a hard time with change.”

If all town spending is approved, the amount to be raised in taxes would drop by about $69,000, resulting in an estimated 39-cent decrease in the municipal tax rate per $1,000 of value. That corresponds to about $97 in less taxes on a $250,000 home.

With Selectwoman Dale Lawrence not running again, there is a two-way contest for her seat.

Ginny Wood, a former health officer in town, and Jeff Katchen, the current health officer, are both running for the Selectboard seat.

An article by petition also seeks to recommend that TransCanada Corp. or a successor company that buys the dams along the Connecticut River be required to establish a mitigation fund and modify dam operations if it is proven that the operations of dams in Bellows Falls, Vt., and Wilder are causing riverbank erosion that is cutting into roads and farmland. Some 10 towns along the Connecticut River have similar questions on their town warnings or warrants this year.

John Gregg can be reached at 603-727-3217 or jgregg@vnews.com.