The Story
Local election tomorrow. Voting will be held at the BHS gym 7am-7pm.
What are we voting on?
School board members Jay Nash and Cindy Chagnon’s terms are up, which means it’s time to add some new voices to the board. Two town council positions, library trustee, trustee of the trust funds, and supervisor of the checklist are also open. Oh, and of course, the town will be voting on the school district’s operating budget for the 2021-2022 school year (our personal favorite).
So who’s running?
Up for the school board seats are Melissa Stevens, Melinda Bator, Autumn Haskell, and Michael McCormick. Stevens is our current Town Councilor, and Bator has experience teaching in 5 out of 6 of the Bedford Schools. Haskell has lived in Bedford for 2 years, but has yet to get involved in the schools, and McCormick has never voted in a school or town election in the 8 years he’s lived here. Town Council candidates include Sue Thomas, Kelleigh Murray, Bill Duschatko, and Bill Greazzo. Most of the candidates for other positions are running uncontested, except for Jerry Hanauer, Hank Vanderbeek, and Doreen Schneller, who are running for library trustee.
And what about the budget?
The proposed operating budget for the 2021-2022 school year (without warrants or bonds) is set at a whopping 78.5 million dollars. This is about 1 million dollars greater than the default budget, which would be the operating budget if the proposed one doesn’t get a majority vote tomorrow.
Why is it higher than the default?
A few reasons. The board wants to make a new one-year wage contract with the teachers’ association. It’s only one year due to financial uncertainty (thank you, covid), plus it will end up paying teachers more money. Sprinkler systems need updating, capital expenditures, and programs and materials for “educational excellence” are all contributors.
Any other investment needs?
Yep. The above needs are the really big ones that make a lot of difference in the budget. Other, smaller needs include ventilation equipment, fully funding an athletic trainer (yay Eric), maintaining class sizes, roof and floor covering replacements, additional clerk hours, and wage competitiveness. All very exciting, we know.
The Runaway
Make sure to cast your ballot tomorrow.
What to Say…
When you’re starving for a sports update…
The winter sports season is finally coming to a pretty mediocre end. Both girls and boys swim took state championship victories last week, with a record setting 100 meter butterfly from Megan Leyden. Both teams also took dubs in alpine ski, despite the team being cut down significantly because of that pesky old virus. After an edge-of-your-seat nail-biting sudden death overtime period, girls hockey took a narrow loss to Keene in the first round of the playoffs. Boys hockey pulled through with a win against Exeter on Saturday, they play again on Wednesday. Boys basketball also lost in the playoffs this weekend to Trinity and girls basketball is headed to the semi-finals after beating Concord yesterday. They’ve been on quite the hot streak this season so maybe they can bring home the championship.
When you’re yearning for some consistency…
You’re going to have to yearn a little longer because BHS is changing up the daily schedule……again. On Wednesday, Jozokos announced that there will be a new schedule at the high school starting today. Yay…or not. The previous new schedule had many students and teachers confused. And without really giving us a chance to get the hang of this new schedule, they switched it on us yet again. In his email, Jozokos explained that the schedule needs to change again due to the traffic caused by the high school and middle school starting at similar times. The (new) new schedule eliminates the fully remote check-in times and makes each block 82 minutes long instead of an hour. The majority of students are not pleased with this decision, 84% saying they’re opposed on our Instagram poll (@runawaybulldog). One student says that they are tired of the constant schedule switches, and another is tired of being treated like guinea pigs. This is the third schedule switch of the year and it’s only the 3rd quarter. That’s gotta be a record.
When petitioning actually works…
We’ve got yet another update for you regarding the girls lacrosse helmets debacle. A few weeks ago, the official decision was made to make helmets no longer mandatory for the girls lacrosse team. Players will be allowed, but not required, to wear helmets (which is exactly what they wanted in the first place). As we previously mentioned, there was a petition started campaigning for the wearing of helmets to be a choice. The petition ended up getting 480 signatures. And guess what? To everyone’s surprise, the school board actually listened. According to one school board member, the helmets pose as a drawback since they could possibly limit players’ sight and make opposing teams more aggressive. The school board voted 3-2 to overturn the original mandate.
Things to Know
Winter sports are over. You know what that means…
Spring sports sign-ups are open. Tryouts start March 29th.