DOVER At the end of a long night of impassioned pleas one more Dover Teachers Union rally, the City Council slashed more than $5 million from the default city school district budget Wednesday night.
The default school budget of a little more than $73 million for fiscal year 2022 was reduced to about $68 million, allowing Dover to achieve a total city budget that falls under the city tax cap. School leaders will now have to make final decision of their own, but previously said this cut could result in enacting a contractual clause to eliminate $1.7 million in raises for educators and reducing 29 positions, about half through retirements. The final Dover school budget will be approximately $68 million, about $1 million more than last year.
DOVER A small group of teachers stood outside Dover High School Friday during their lunch break, passing out green and white “Support Dover Public Schools” yard signs to residents who want to show support for the Dover Teachers Union.
Five hundred signs were paid for by a community action grant from National Education Association-New Hampshire, the statewide union. The Dover teachers are using the sign campaign to kick off the final stretch in the city budget process, which they hope will end with the raises in their contract preserved and without cuts to school staff.
Weeks of teachers and residents urging the council to pass the Dover School District s default budget of more than $73 million, about $5 million over the city s tax cap, are soon coming to a head. A final decision is looming from the City Council, which is also hearing from residents who don t want to see higher tax bills.
DOVER The City Hall lawn was covered with members of the Dover Teachers Union Wednesday evening, their families and supporters of all ages wearing red and urging drivers to honk and cheer to back their cause.
The demonstration came before the City Council held an open public hearing for residents to speak about the school budget for 2021-22. Nineteen people spoke during the session, most urging the City Council to consider passing the default school budget, despite it being more than $5 million over the city s tax cap.
Nabia Fortier, a Woodman Park Elementary School parent, was one of many who turned out in support of the teachers union and passing a default budget that includes contractual raises for teachers, as well as advocating against cutting paraprofessional staff jobs.
Fosters Daily Democrat
DOVER When Mike Romps kindergarten class of Garrison Elementary School students went to fully remote learning last year, he experienced what he considers one of the greatest challenges in his professional teaching career. I ve been teaching for 20 years, and I felt like a first-year teacher all over again, Romps said. In the beginning we were all just trying to kind of MacGyver it . It was a great deal of work to educate through a screen, and we saw that nothing beats that face-to-face in-person learning.
Romps was one of more than 800 educators and school staff members vaccinated on Friday during a mass vaccination clinic at Dover High School, made possible by a collaborative effort between Dover School District, Dover Fire and Rescue Department and the Strafford County Community Health Network.