Hudson's proposed school budget down $1.05m over last year

HUDSON – Thanks to the implementation of lower-cost health-care plans and a bump in grant revenue, the Hudson School District finds itself in a rather unusual position this budget season: Its proposed fiscal 2009-10 operating budget is less than the current one.

The Budget committee voted Tuesday night to recommend the $41,461,276 budget – some $1.05 million, or roughly 2.5 percent, less than the 2008-09 budget – at a public hearing at the Community Center.

The budget is detailed in the first of seven warrant articles that will go before voters at the Jan. 31 school deliberative session, which starts at 9 a.m. at the Community Center.

The committee voted to recommend six of the seven proposed articles, with the only nonrecommendation coming on a 5-5 vote, with one abstention, on the increases for teachers – which are already set in the contract between Local 2263, Hudson Federation of Teachers, and the school board, which is in effect through 2011.

The budget committee also voted overwhelmingly to not recommend the two eleventh-hour petitions posted by resident Donna Ohanian, one of which calls for the implementation of public kindergarten in Hudson and the other, for the school board to withdraw its suit against the state Department of Education.