When the school board requested that athletics be funded at $1 for the FY27 budget, it wasn’t because we don’t support athletics. We do. We asked for this because we knew we could reduce the budget further and avoid overcommitting tax dollars and raising the tax rate unnecessarily. 

NH law allows the board to transfer money between line items. There are spots in the budget where the board believes cuts can be made in the future, including positions that are unlikely to be filled, and the board is confident that, together with the administration, we will be able to adjust spending and move money to make sure our students have full access to sports in Claremont. The one thing we can’t do is move funds to line items that are funded at $0, which is why things are often funded at $1.

This gives our school district more flexibility over how to spend the budget. Combining flexibility with oversight will give us the ability to improve our schools the way we want to and not be tied to line items that may not be necessary right now.