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Timberlane superintendent outlines cuts, spending freeze and launches deliberative-session survey
Summary
Timberlane Superintendent Justin Krieger told Sandown selectmen the district enacted a spending freeze, is pursuing limited special-education relief under RSA 32:11, and has realigned budgets after a roughly $4 million voter reduction; the district will survey residents on preferred deliberative-session dates and venues to boost participation.
Justin Krieger, Timberlane Regional School District superintendent, told the Sandown Board of Selectmen on May 4 that the district has tightened spending to finish fiscal 2026 and is preparing for an austere fiscal 2027. "We instituted a spending freeze," Krieger said, describing a freeze the administration began in February and communicated to the school board in March.
Krieger said the district has written to the New Hampshire Commissioner of Education under RSA 32:11 to request authority to address unanticipated special-education costs that can arise when a student’s needs require out-of-district placement. "That may allow us to meet some unanticipated costs this year that we had specifically for special education," he said.
Why it matters: Voters reduced the districts approved budget by about $4 million, forcing choices that affect staff, capital projects and services. Krieger told selectmen the district cut about 13 positions (nine of them filled), saving roughly $900,000; deferred approximately $1.3 million in capital spending; moved about $900,000 of lease payments into fiscal 2028; and generated roughly $640,000 in savings from principals and directors who trimmed discretionary spending such as field-trip transportation and equipment purchases.
Krieger and school-board members emphasized personnel and health insurance as the district's largest ongoing costs. "It is no secret we've been shouting from the rooftops that our number-one expense is personnel," he said, adding that health-insurance rates remain a major unknown to model until insurers set rates.
The superintendent also outlined outreach steps. The district will run a brief public survey asking residents (by town) whether they favor Thursday, Friday or Saturday deliberative-session dates and times. Krieger said the survey is intended to avoid the perception of unilateral decision-making and to gather the communitys preference: "We don't want it to be seen as a decision the school board made ... That's why we're putting this out to the public," he said.
Residents and selectmen urged more engagement and local forums ahead of elections after three consecutive default budgets. Several attendees said holding deliberative sessions on weekends or earlier in the evening could improve participation from working residents; Krieger and a school-board member said they support exploring calendar and venue changes to increase turnout.
Next step: The district will post the survey on town and social-media channels as requested; Krieger said the budget committee's first business meeting is Sept. 10 and that earlier coordination between the budget committee and the school board is planned.
Attribution: All quotes and attributions in this article come from Superintendent Justin Krieger or from comments recorded in the May 4 Sandown Board of Selectmen transcript.
