NEWPORT — Voters narrowly approved a three-year teachers contract and an $18.9 million budget while rejecting most other appropriations during the annual school meeting vote Tuesday.
Preliminary results — in what a School Board member Virginia Irwin called a record turnout — show the teachers contract was approved, 629-612, and the budget, which was more than the default budget and includes a pay increase for Newport support staff, sailed through, 997-223. A $78,000 appropriation to repair a fire alarm panel at the technical center also passed.
The teachers contract calls for an increase in the base pay of 1 percent, or about $370 per teacher for each of the next three years. Teachers who are behind in their steps will make up half of them in the first year and the rest in the second year. A step amounts to about $1,200.
The average teacher’s salary in Newport in the 2017-18 school year was $43,399, significantly below the statewide average of $53,984, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education. The average in neighboring Sunapee was $68,807.
“We are feeling very relieved,” Lisa Ferrigno, co-president of the Newport Teachers Association, said after the results were announced. “We think this is good news for Newport teachers and students and will help us remain stable and continue to improve education in the district.”
After voters rejected a contract last year and 27 teachers left the district, supporters of the increased salaries feared that another defeat would lead to additional teacher departures.
Ferrigno credited the approval to the work the union did to inform voters and get them to the polls.
“We knocked on doors last weekend, had phone banks and did voter education on how to register,” Ferrigno said. “We are very grateful to the community members who came out to support us.”
According to the administration, the budget and contract is estimated to add $4.64 per $1,000 of assessed valuation to the school tax rate. However, Irwin said she expects the actual increase when the tax rate is set in October will be less than projected, as it was this year.
Irwin said she thought the teachers contract would be approved by a wider margin given the effort to persuade people to support it, but she was nevertheless pleased for the town and school.
“I am very disappointed in some of the things that did not pass,” Irwin said.
She pointed to the $45,000 for a feasibility study and design for renovations to the technical center that lost, 740-485, and $200,000 to expand special education services for autistic students and others who are moving up in grade level, which was defeated, 831-290.
“We may have to send some students out of district,” she said.
Additionally, Irwin said, even though the budget passed, the board still needs to cut $500,000, and that may mean staff.
“We will just have to get creative and find a way to deliver services differently,” she said.
All other appropriations were defeated by wide margins.
Turnout was roughly 30 percent of the town’s registered voters.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
