Covid-19 has put severe strains on the financial abilities of districts across the state
The following letter was sent by all of the mayors and several school board chairs in 11 cities to Gov. Chris Sununu, Senate President Chuck Morse, House Speaker Sherman Packard and Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut.
Covid-19 has put tremendous strain on school districts across the state of New Hampshire, and as districts begin the budgeting process for the next school year, there are three particular areas of concern that we as mayors and school board chairs wanted to bring to your attention in the hopes that the Department of Education and the state of New Hampshire will work with our local governments to ensure that we continue to provide the students of our state with an adequate public education.
As a result of nationwide area eligibility and other waivers expanding access to the Free & Reduced Lunch program, districts across the state have been able to reimagine and expand their school nutrition programs in order to insure that all students have access to healthy meals throughout the pandemic. Unfortunately, the unintended consequences of this increased access to food have resulted in the most significant budgetary shortfall facing many school districts across New Hampshire.
Enrollment by eligible families in district’s Free & Reduced Lunch Programs have been significantly reduced from previous years, particularly in those communities that have implemented hybrid or remote learning. This reduction is not due to a decrease in need, but rather to an increase in accessibility of free food options and limited inperson interactions between guardians and teachers.
Before the pandemic, students in Manchester who were eligible for free lunch made up about 49.5% of total enrollment, and those eligible for reduced lunch accounted for about 7.31%.
But because the pandemic has meant fewer opportunities to communicate with parents, the Manchester School District has seen a reduction in the number of families and students who have filled out the forms to be eligible for free and reduced lunch. As of Oct. 31, 2020, free eligible students were 39.99% of enrollment and reduced eligible were 4.49% of enrollment, which will result in approximately a $3.6 million funding decrease.
More rural communities are also seeing decreases in enrollment in the program. As of November 20, Berlin is facing a loss of over $316,000 when compared to last year.
Additionally, many of our public schools are seeing an unprecedented decrease in enrollment due to Covid-19, with many parents opting to send their children to private school or to homeschool their children until public schools are able to return to fully in-person education safely. As the first vaccines for this virus are being administered to teachers and child care providers between March and May in Phase 2A of the state’s vaccination plan, we are hopeful that education — and in turn, enrollment numbers — will look far closer to the 2019/2020 school year, rather than the 2020/2021 school year.
Districts across the state are concerned that since adequacy aid is based on the enrollment of the previous year, if enrollment numbers increase to a pre-pandemic level, that they will be left educating a significant number of students for which they did not receive adequate aid.
The final financial concern that our school districts are facing, while not related to Covid-19, is a result of the rate increases for state retirement contributions.
This downshifting of costs from the state to local municipalities and school districts will result in considerable budget shortfalls.
In Rochester, the teachers rate increase of 18.1% and employees rate increase of 25.8% means more than a $1.02 million expenditure at a time when districts are already struggling.
Our districts have been forced to reimagine the way we educate our students during this pandemic, bringing to light clear needs for improvements to our technology infrastructure in our more rural communities, where without access to high-speed broadband, students learning remotely have no way to access their education. Even after the pandemic, it is critical that all students in our state have access to high-speed internet, regardless of where they live.
Without it, the digital divide within education will continue to grow and harm our rural and low-income students most.
An accessible and properly funded public education is critical for the children of New Hampshire, and right now, our schools are communicating significant concerns. We hope that the Department of Education, executive and Legislature take into account these anticipated revenue shortfalls as they are allocating funding, particularly as it relates to Covid-19 and adequate funding for the 2021/2022 school year.
This letter was signed by mayors and school board chairs in Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Dover, Keene, Laconia, Manchester, Nashua, Portsmouth, Rochester and Somersworth.
