At Hanover's Town Hall, Rob Grabill, Hanover the town's District Clerk and Carole Bibeau, the Dresden District Clerk, test the ballot machines that will be used in next week's school elections on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, in Hanover, N.H. They were feeding the machines a number of ballots filled out in a way that would make them challenging. "We don't want to find out on voting day that there is a glitch." Grabill said. After the machines count the ballot, they count them by hand to validate the machine. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
At Hanover's Town Hall, Rob Grabill, Hanover the town's District Clerk and Carole Bibeau, the Dresden District Clerk, test the ballot machines that will be used in next week's school elections on Monday, Feb. 27, 2023, in Hanover, N.H. They were feeding the machines a number of ballots filled out in a way that would make them challenging. "We don't want to find out on voting day that there is a glitch." Grabill said. After the machines count the ballot, they count them by hand to validate the machine. (Valley News - Jennifer Hauck) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News โ€“ Jennifer Hauck

Articles of note: Voters will be asked to approve a privately-funded JV hockey program. “There are enough players at present, and for the foreseeable future, to support a boys JV Hockey Team and possibly a girls JV Hockey Team,” Article 6 on the Dresden warrant says. “Understanding that the School District is not yet prepared to support JV Hockey Teams financially, local families are ready, willing, and able to fund and administratively support a JV Hockey Team through private donations and per player fees.” But the program would need to be approved by the school district. Several other sports at Hanover High School started with private funding and have since been brought into the district’s budget.

Contested races: See the capsules for the Hanover School District annual meeting and Norwich Town Meeting. The Dresden School Board consists of members of the Hanover and Norwich school boards.

Budgets and spending articles: The proposed budget of $33.7 million is about $1.9 million higher than the current year’s. Spending is up by about 6.1%. In addition, voters will be asked to approve a new three-year contract with the district’s service staff. The contract would add nearly $102,000 to next year’s spending.

When, where and how to vote: Discussion phase, 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28 in the Hanover High School auditorium. Voting on all articles will be on Tuesday, March 3. Polls will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Richmond Middle School Gym for Hanover voters and at Tracy Hall for Norwich voters.

Alex Hanson has been a writer and editor at Valley News since 1999.