Our Superintendent salary currently ranks in the top 20% of compensation in the entire state, ahead of towns like Amherst, Milford, Derry, Hooksett, and Bedford. I have not found a single metric to indicate that our district currently performs anywhere near to that level. I would cut that salary first. https://www.education.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt326/files/inline-documents/sonh/salaries20-21.xlsx

Non-essential perks and benefits such as travel expenses, conferences, etc. I would go line by line through the existing budget to identify any items we could remove, or defer (ie- infrastructure investments or longer term projects) without negatively impacting our core faculty and support staff or their ability to educate our kids.

If budget cuts were needed, I would be looking for areas to cut that would not impact student education or opportunities. I would look at cutting routine maintenance items that did not jeopardize staff or student safety. In that scenario, an analysis of all budget areas- including staff- would also need to be done to see where there could be any consolidation or adjustments that would not impact educational outcomes.

I could be mistaken here and showing my ignorance but I don't believe the role of the school is to make cuts in the budget. I believe that is the responsibility of the superintendent and the budget committee.

Since many parts of the budget are crucial to the education and experiences offered to the students, it would take careful consideration to determine where a budget cut would be most appropriate. I do not know many people that want to just throw their money out the window without it having a set and necessary purpose. With that said, School Districts, especially one the size of Merrimack, are not cheap to run. A proper investment in the District can be a significant investment in the success of children of our town. I feel that the budget needs to be reviewed to ensure funds are used appropriately and efficiently. It should be reviewed from multiple angles and perspectives (through the various experiences and point of views on the School Board and Budgeting Committee) to find cost saving opportunities. Once options for potential savings have been discovered, they should be further assessed as to what the short-term and long-term effects of implementing those opportunities would be on the students, teachers and district as a whole. The taxpayers should feel confident that the money allotted for School District expenses are being utilized efficiently but not with the sacrifice of providing a top of the line education and experience.

By examining each line item within the budget, I would look for savings with the least impact on teachers and students. The School Board is the only entity capable of line-by-line changes to the budget and able to see what items may induce savings with little to no impact.

If we need to make cuts to the budget, I would look for items that have the least impact to the students and teachers.

By evaluating the needs of the school and looking for areas to reduce costs that have least impact on the students' education.

I support cutting items that are not directly related to learning outcomes before those that would affect the delivery and quality of education. I would ask administration to provide their list of priorities of what would be cut that would not affect student learning outcomes.

I would look at: any extras in the budget to identify anything we can defer, any overhead costs that could be reduced without impacting the quality of education for Merrimack students, and whether we can get health insurance premiums reduced or capped. I would also look at whether there are additional state or federal funds that we could use that qualify for pandemic related costs, but also provide a long-term benefit to the district.

If there was a budget cut, I would look at areas that do not affect meeting our students' educational needs and goals, which includes keeping the infrastructure in place to retain a highly-qualified workforce. In my experience in developing near- and long-term budgets a key factor is knowing the entire scope of effort/requirements to be funded to develop the budget plus an understanding from all stakeholders on the priority of those requirements. It is an easier task to get through a budget cut when all parties know and understand the most important line items that must be funded through the lower priority line items in order to be able to recommend what line item(s) will be impacted at a time a budget cut is forthcoming.