Vote Douglas C. Bates
for Nottingham Budget Committee

School Warrant Article #1

Summarized: 20-year $5,574,980 bond to expand the school building.

Nottingham voters in 2021 decided against a Warrant Article to build a sizable addition onto the school. The School Facilities Committee has submitted a similar Warrant Article for 2022. The major difference is that the project price has been lowered through several efforts to economize on the design, bringing down the construction costs of the projected to $5,574,980. That's a bit over about $1,000 for every person in Town. (Of course, the tax to be paid is not per capita but based on property). As the project will be funded via a 20-year bond, there will also be interest costs.

There are reasonable arguments both for and against this Warrant Article. Consequently the Town's voters are having difficulty coming to agreement.

The short history of the matter is that in 1994 the voters approved a new school, with a designed student capacity of 600. While the school's student population in Nottingham has never gotten close to that number (highest ever was 525), and is not close now (480), the methods of instruction used in the school have changed dramatically to employ much more small-group instruction and smaller class sizes. These methods are more space consumptive than the methods the school building was designed for and require different room configurations. Consequently, a large number of deficiencies in the existing building have been identified. The objective of the building expansion program is to remedy these deficiencies.

The reason the teaching methods were changed was the poor rankings of the school's performance. Since then, the School's rankings have greatly improved due to changes in its teaching methods. These new methods are, unfortunately, more resource intensive, requiring both more staffing and more space. This has been successful, but it has been and remains difficult to do because the existing facility was not designed for this educational method.

The situation is not new. The space problems have been a concern since at least 2010.

In addition to the space problems due to changes in educational methods, the school is now having to absorb more students due to the moving of pre-kindergarten from Northwood.

So, there's a solid case that the School needs to be enlarged. There are, however, reasons not to act upon this need. These reasons fall into three broad categories:

1. The problem is temporary.
1. Population growth will not continue
2. Birthrates will continue to fall
3. Changes in the legal and regulatory systems as well as advances in educational technology are likely to create educational alternatives that will draw students away from the Nottingham School.
2. We cannot afford it.
3. Ideological opposition.

The Problem Is Temporary

That the problem may be temporary is worthy to consider. We cannot un-build parts of the school and get our money back should those parts no longer be needed. Predicting the future, however, is difficult. One way of predicting the future is to look at the past. We know that the Town's population has been steadily increasing. On the other hand, the population increases have almost all been adults, not school-age children. On the other hand, we know that space at the school has been an issue for over a dozen years. While the birthrate has been going down, this is being offset by increasing numbers of families moving into Town. Unless there's a substantial change in either of these trends, the overcrowding situation the school experiences now can be expected to continue for many more years.

An even bigger unknown is whether changes in the laws, regulations, and technology will draw students away from the school. While we are seeing growing interest in alternatives to traditional public schools, the interest seems to be highest in areas with poorly rated schools. That's not Nottingham. SchoolDigger.com ranks our school at 45 out of 211. PublicSchoolReview.com ranks our elementary school 54 out of 347 and our middle school 18 out of 146. US News & World Report ranks our elementary school 93 out of 362 and our middle school 5 out of 234. This is performance everyone in Nottingham can be proud of. Because we have such a good school, it seems unlikely that there will be sizable interest in creating an alternative, even if laws were to change to make alternatives much more accessible.

Not Affordable

Arguments that we cannot afford it are really just arguments about values. There's value to keeping money in our pockets. There is value in having a good school as better schools correlate with higher property values. There is value in educating the Town's children. In this regard, it's not surprising that the childless might prefer to keep their money and residents with children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews might prefer a nicer school.

But, there's more than just value in educating the Town's children. The Town has a legal obligation to do so, and because of that, the Town's voters have a moral obligation to do so. Nottingham's children don't get a second chance at childhood.

Ideological

Those who attended the School Deliberative Session got to hear some of the ideological arguments. The big one is that taxing people to pay to educate the children of other people is theft. Because it is theft, it is immoral. Because it is immoral, it should not be done.

While I could elaborate at length the philosophical issues here - I am a published author on philosophy - I'll keep my comments short and to the point.

The Town operates under New Hampshire state law and federal law. These laws constrain us about what we do locally. Those who do not approve of this system of public education should take their complaints to where the system can be changed. While there are good reasons to be dissatisfied with the system and wanting to change it, acting to prevent the system from functioning is sabotage, and in this case the victims of the sabotage are children.

Recommendation: Vote Yes.