HANOVER — Public school officials in Hanover and Norwich had planned to hire a social worker who would help assess students’ needs across the towns’ four schools.
But the massive runup in health insurance costs in New Hampshire has put that hire out of reach for next year.
“That, unfortunately, was one of the first things cut from the budget,” Kelly McConnell, chairwoman of the Hanover School Board, said in an interview.
The Hanover School District, which oversees the town’s K-5 school, is anticipating a 29% increase in health care expenses in the next fiscal year.
And the Dresden Interstate School District, which oversees middle and high school education for both Hanover and Norwich, projects a 25.8% increase.
In addition, higher costs imposed during the current school year by SchoolCare, which handles health insurance for many New Hampshire districts, will reduce the amount Hanover and Dresden can apply to next year to offset new spending.
So while the Hanover district’s proposed $17.1 million budget is only 3.4% higher than the current year’s, the projected tax rate increase is 6.4%.
And Hanover’s share of paying for the proposed Dresden budget of nearly $34 million is an estimated 7.5% higher than this year.
The Norwich School District, which oversees the town’s preK-6 Marion Cross School, will see a more modest rise in health care costs of around 7%, in line with the rest of Vermont.
The Vermont Education Health Initiative announced in October that actions taken to reduce the cost of medications administered in hospitals, to restrict overall hospital budgets in Vermont, and to diminish the use of GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy reduced the organization’s premiums statewide by $40 million. (New Hampshire has taken no action to limit coverage of GLP-1 drugs, which are both expensive and increasingly widely used, except to restrict Medicaid recipients from using it for weight loss.)
Even with lower health premiums, the initial Norwich budget came in with an increase of more than 8% over the current year.
That has been pared back to 3.1%, but much is still up in the air.
“Right now, the board is going to have to decide which way they’re going to go,” Neil Odell, a member of the Norwich and Dresden boards and chairman of the Dresden Budget Committee, said in an interview.
Norwich has been unable to get accurate weighted student count estimates from the state Agency of Education, which makes it difficult to project the tax rate for next year.
Right now, Odell estimates a 5 to 7% tax rate increase (which covers Norwich’s costs for both elementary and secondary education), but if the board gets a correct count that shows a smaller increase, it could choose to restore items it had cut from the budget.
Board members also could opt for more cuts if tax estimates turn higher, Odell said.
The Norwich Budget Committee is slated to meet on Jan. 6, and the full School Board on Jan. 7.
A budget adoption meeting is planned for Jan. 15.
In addition to the higher tax impact from the budget, Hanover voters also will be asked to consider a new contract with the district’s service staff, which is still under negotiation, and a proposal to add a pre-Kindergarten program at Hanover’s Ray School.
The service workers’ union is a small bargaining unit, “so the overall tax impact if the warrant article passes should not be huge,” McConnell said.
The preK program has been under consideration for several years, McConnell said. Anytime the board takes a survey or holds an informal discussion, “people are in favor of the idea,” she said.
Hanover already has students who qualify for early special education services, which are federally funded for children who are three or four years old. A pilot preK program would include students who are not eligible for special education.
The estimated cost of $150,000 would more than double if school officials decide a portable classroom is necessary to house the program in the short term.
There’s concern that with the projected tax increase this might not be the year to pursue it.
“The board still has to decide whether to put this on the warrant,” McConnell said. “I think we’re really on the fence.”
Elsewhere in the Hanover budget, the board opted to cut five positions for educational assistants, most of them for special education. These are positions that have been in the budget before, but that the district has been unable to fill, McConnell said.
Overall, “I feel like the school has done a good job of controlling costs,” McConnell said.
The Hanover School Board will consider the budget for adoption on Jan. 14.
The Dresden budget is a little over $2.1 million higher than the current year’s spending, an increase of about 6.8%.
The budget information the Dresden board discussed on Dec. 16 included a menu of cuts needed to keep the budget to a 7% increase, and a separate list of cuts needed to keep the increase to 6%.
Those lists will be up for discussion when the Dresden School Board meets to consider budget adoption on Jan. 13.