Special Board of Aldermen Public Hearing Page 8
Fred Teeboom
When you had these discussions is it discussion the school department affected the enrollment is
about 20 percent...the enrollment today in the schools is just about 20 percent below than it was in
the year 2000.
Mayor Donchess
Well that might be but the main cost of education is salaries for educators including teachers and
paras and to some degree administrators. At this point, Nashua is about 50" among the school
districts in New Hampshire as far as teacher's pay goes. It’s not like we’re paying so much more.
There are 50 districts in New Hampshire that pay more than us. The cost would be much higher had
those reductions in enrollments not occurred but certainly as | said, there are districts like Concord. |
think their average pay is like $12,000 or $15,000 more than ours. Then there are 49 districts
approximately between Concord and us.
Fred Teeboom
There’s 180 districts there. So if we’re 50, it’s 130 below us.
Mayor Donchess
That’s correct.
Fred Teeboom
The other point | wanted to make...
Mayor Donchess
But Nashua has probably of those districts probably among the highest cost of living because we’re
on the Massachusetts border. Real estate prices are higher than much of New Hampshire — not all of
it but much of it. So the cost of living here is a little higher than many of those districts that pay more.
Fred Teeboom
If you wanted to cut costs, if you really wanted to manage it so go along with the flow, assess the fact
that the enrollment is down by 20 percent. Many of these elementary schools have empty
classrooms. Almost empty classrooms. You can close at least one school. In 2006, there was a
(inaudible) study and the summaries were kind of whitewashed because they basically said they can
close the school — Mount Pleasant particularly which is right next to Amherst Street. Today you can
close two schools. Each of these elementary schools cost between $4 — 6 million to operate.
Nobody has ever followed through the idea if you have that much reduction in children going to
school, why don’t you close the school? We've got 18 buildings. We have 12 elementary schools.
Mayor Donchess
Well that might be something that the school department, the School Board, should consider and at
least think about and analyze. That is a decision that is up to the Board of Education. Of course |
would want to get their input. The expansion to full day kindergarten will — we could have them come
up but | don’t think it is correct that there are many, many empty classrooms. The expansion to full
day kindergarten will take up some classroom space.
