The Timberlane Regional School district budget committee voted Oct. 10 to accept for review and consideration the proposed operating budgets from five elementary-level buildings — Atkinson ($114,092), Danville ($83,114), Pollard ($129,027), Sandown Central ($36,330) and Sandown North ($88,170). The committee treated the five presentations as a group and approved each motion unanimously for review.

Why it matters: Committee members and school leaders said the schools used a shared, district-wide equity review to align spending across buildings and to reduce or reassign lines where actual spending has been lower than prior allocations. Those adjustments will affect the community’s review of the overall district operating request before any personnel proposals or the full budget is finalized.

Principals gave similar explanations for reductions and reclassifications. Steve Garces, who identified himself as “the principal at Gavinton,” described Atkinson’s request as “relatively flat” year over year and said staff reduced some professional-development and equipment lines after reviewing actual expenditures. He said the school moved curriculum-related online subscriptions from a general supplies code into a dedicated information-access-fees line; the math program portion alone is “just a tick under $10,000” for the coming year.

Chris Snyder, presenting Danville’s request, said the school pursued similar reductions across professional development, supplies and information resources and reduced new-equipment requests by roughly 6% to 21% depending on the line. Mary Sullivan, Pollard’s new principal, said she aligned her request to actual FY24 spending and increased the library/books line to match recommended per-pupil targets.

Sandown principals described comparable work. Sandown North’s presenter asked the district to increase the school’s office secretary from 185 to 190 days; she called the $924.70 cost “a need, not a want,” saying the extra days improve year-start and year-end transitions. Committee members asked whether that extension would flow into the personnel package; a staff member present said personnel changes would be handled through the personnel process and brought to the committee later.

Several principals said the process of meeting together to compare budgets had helped identify consistent underused lines, reduce duplication and coordinate shared professional-development expenses across buildings. One presenter said that in past years some district purchases had been coded to a supply line and would now be budgeted under a more specific account; that reclassification can show up as increases in an otherwise flat budget.

The committee voted to accept each school’s proposed operating budget for review and consideration; motions were made after the presentations and seconded. The transcript records the outcome for each motion as unanimous approval to move the proposed budgets forward for review.

What’s next: Committee members said they will continue collecting remaining building and departmental submissions, review the aggregate operating total and then determine whether additional reductions are needed. The committee will consider personnel proposals separately when health-insurance rates and the personnel package are complete.

Ending note: The budget packets and presentation materials used at the meeting are posted with the committee’s agenda materials on the district’s public documents page for review.