The annual Cornish School District meeting will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 9, in the Cornish School gymnasium. Town Meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 12, in the gymnasium.

CORNISH — Voters will consider a 3 percent raise for full-time town employees and a new foreign language program for students during this year’s town and school district meetings.

An increase in expected revenues will offset expenditures that also include new equipment for the fire department, new computers for the town offices and a new full-time elementary school teacher, but if all town and school spending is approved, residents will see an increase of 45 cents per $1,000 on their tax bills, or about $113 on a property valued at $250,000.

Most of the 28 articles on this year’s town warrant are fairly standard and will come out of capital reserve funds, Selectboard Chairman John Hammond said.

A few expenditures will have a direct impact on taxes or come from unassigned fund balance.

Updating the computer systems at the town offices will cost $8,000; an architectural study of a handicapped-accessible entrance and restrooms for the George H. Stowell Free Library and the Cornish Historical Society will cost $12,500; and the purchase of self-contained breathing apparatus for the fire department will cost the town $6,200, with the remainder of the $124,500 cost coming from a Federal Emergency Management Agency firefighters assistance grant.

“The town’s always been very supportive of the fire department, so I don’t think that’s going to be an issue,” Hammond said.

A rise in medical insurance premiums and a 6 percent increase in the fire department budget, along with a few other miscellaneous items, also affected this year’s proposed $1.03 million operating budget. Hammond said that an uptick in dispatch calls last year precipitated the increase in the fire department budget.

Along with approving budgets and other expenditures, voters will elect two Selectboard members. Scott Baker is running for re-election unopposed, and Lyle Parry, who took over Ginny Wood’s seat after she stepped down last fall, is running against Kyle Witty, a former highway agent.

An attempt to change the position of highway agent from an appointed position to an elected position also is on the warrant, by petition, a change that Hammond said may inspire some debate.

“In today’s world, most of the highway agents are appointed because there’s limited oversight on an elected official,” Hammond said. Additionally, elected officials have to live in town, “so it limits the pool to draw from,” he said.

At the annual school district meeting, voters will consider a $3.56 million operating budget, which includes the addition of a full-time teacher for the first or second grade and a part-time teacher to launch a foreign language program at the school, according to School Board Chairman Justin Ranney. The language teacher position will be funded at one hour a day, four days per week.

Cornish School Board member Nicole Saginor is running unopposed for re-election.

Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnews.com and 603 -727-3268.

Clarification

Warrant articles to update the computer systems at the town offices and to do an architectural study of the George H. Stowell Free Library and Cornish Historical Society would be paid by unassigned fund balance if approved by voters. An earlier version of this story was unclear on that point.