The proposed school-operating budget for 2025 was the first, most debated item at the Deliberative Session on Feb. 10.
If Article 1, which governs the budget, were to pass, the town would spend $67,509,020 for fiscal year 2025, and if it fails, this year’s default budget of $67,596,534 will apply with “certain adjustments required by previous action of the Hudson School District or by law,” according to Moderator, Paul Inderbitzen. A special meeting for a revised budget is also possible if the proposed budget fails.
Notably, the School Board unanimously rejected the lower budget proposal, with a 4-0 recommendation by the School Board. Several proposals, including the conversation of 15 part-time paraprofessional positions to full-time and the addition of a behavioral analysis coordinator were cut by the Budget Committee. The operating budget retained the addition of six new part-time paraprofessionals, a part-time finance bookkeeper, and a part-time computer science teacher.
“I believe you’re getting a good education for your students with the amount of money this town spends for their school program because the school tax rate is lower than every other surrounding community,” said Budget Committee Chair, Norm Martin.
Patty Langlais of 22 Stonewood Lane stood to amend the operated budget, adding $500,000 to the proposed spending.
“My reasoning behind this is first, the paras. When I was on the School Board a long, long time ago, we had full-time paras, and since then, we’ve cut these down to part-time paras,” said Langlais, who stepped down from her position as a School Board member in 2020. “If you go by any schools in the past couple of years, all you see on their job boards is ‘paras needed, apply within.’ Currently, there are 32 positions for paras that are empty!”
She also added a Special Education preschool teacher in her amendment. Reactions to the amendment were mixed.
“The total amount coming from the taxpayer is about a $10 million increase from 2023 to the 2025 budget,” said Peggy Huard of 13 David Drive in opposition to the amendment. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I did not like my surprise tax bill increase this year.”
By contrast, Mike Lee of 22 Glasgow Circle spoke in support of the amendment.
“I’ve seen the devastating effects of cutting the paras from full-time to part-time,” said Lee. “Teachers and students need more support than ever before.”
He emphasized his desire to retain every teacher and paraprofessional, claiming Hudson needed “every competitive advantage” to keep its staff members from looking for work in other towns.
A former educator and part-time tutor, Darcy Orellana, of 12 Robin Drive, also supported the amendment, saying that “funding academics without funding the people” was “missing the big picture about what education is about.”
“I don’t think it’s a very proud thing to be that we’re near the bottom on our tax rate for education,” agreed James Crowley of 4 Fairway Dr.
There was a question over the topic of unspent money in the school budget and why it was not being used to support paraprofessionals.
“The money that is budgeted is based on positions that are needed. The money that is in excess is because those positions that are needed, are not able to be filled at this point,” said School Board member, Gretchen Whiting. “When positions are not filled, that money just sits there.”
While two full-time para-positions were recently created from reallocating funds, she worried that taking too much money from teaching positions or unfilled positions would create more hiring problems. However, Shawn Jasper of the Budget Committee challenged this assertion.
“If we can’t fill the part-time para-positions, that money is available,” said Jasper.
After extensive debate, the amendment to add $500,000 to the school operating budget was passed by the Deliberative Session.
