Aldermen reject putting Manchester school charter amendments on Nov. ballot

Sep. 29—Manchester aldermen voted not to place charter amendments on the November ballot that would have allowed the city's school board to set its own budget and override the city's tax cap, ending weeks of uncertainty over whether voters would get a chance to weigh in on the issue this fall.

"This is not the right time," Ward 9 Alderman Barbara Shaw said Tuesday night. "The paranoia about 'how are we going to pay our bills' is all over the city."

Aldermen voted 5-7 on the motion to send the amendments to the ballot, with several citing concerns from residents following the recent citywide revaluation, which saw a 40% increase in the tax base, with the value of single-family homes rising 46%.

Opposed were Jim Roy, Sebastian Sharonov, Ed Sapienza, Shaw, Normand Gamache, Keith Hirschmann, and Joe Kelly Levasseur. In favor were Kevin Cavanaugh, Will Stewart, Pat Long, Bill Barry and Dan O'Neil.

Tony Sapienza and Ross Terrio were absent.

Roy said he had issues with the process and the language of the amendments.

"I just don't think this has been handled well from the beginning," Roy said. "The language to me is very duplicitous."

Sharonov said the wording is confusing.

"The meat of the proposal — whether to give the Board of School Committee the authority to override the tax cap without approval from the Board of Aldermen —is hidden in paragraph three," he said.

Long said people are well aware of the proposed amendments.

"This has been out in the media and social networks since 2019," said Long, who favored giving voters the chance to weigh in.

Bill Barry said it's important to put the issue to the voters, to show "we have trust in our own people and our own city."

"I think this is an opportunity to make a difference in our schools," said O'Neil. "I'm in favor of sending this to the voters."

A November vote on the proposed charter amendments was up in the air for weeks, after the Attorney General's Office refused to sign off. But Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge David Anderson ruled last week the city may move ahead, finding that the proposed change to the charter, "while substantial, does not result in a change in the city's form of government."

Last November, Manchester voters overwhelmingly approved ballot Question 1, authorizing aldermen to propose charter amendments to voters in the November 2021 city election via a school charter commission, without going through the state Legislature.

The School Charter Commission started meeting in early January 2020 and initially proposed a long list of amendments to the charter, but the Attorney General's Office eventually ruled last year they were beyond the scope of the commission.

The original list of recommendations included removing the mayor from the school board and limiting the role of aldermen in the school budget process to approving or denying a tax cap override request.

In July, Long proposed four amendments to the charter covering the above recommendations, with one major change — giving the school board "fiscal autonomy and responsibility for proposing, approving, adopting, appropriating, and overseeing the administration of the School District's annual budget and capital budget."

Long's amendments would have given school board members the authority to override the city's tax cap with the same two-thirds supermajority required for aldermen to approve an override for the city budget.