One incumbent and two newcomers are running for a pair of seats with three-year terms on the Henniker School Board. All three candidates support the idea of the state’s Education Freedom Account vouchers to provide more choice for parents but say the current arrangement takes too much money from public education, making it more difficult for local districts to provide mandated services.

Deb Urbaitis, 53, is the current chair of the five-person board. An estate planning attorney with her own firm, she has lived in Henniker since 2009 and has three children in the SAU. She also serves on the John Stark School Board.

She points to her experience as valuable since most other members have been on the board less than two years.

“My mission would be to try to help train up the board” for details, including upcoming contract negotiations with staff and teachers, she said. “It’s a skill I was fortunate enough to have people mentor me.”

Increasing the need for experience, she said, is “a huge uptick in the amount of legislation that has come, federally and from the state. Sometimes it’s conflicting legislation. … Now you’ve got to make a policy on whatever it is, even if just school lunch.”

Jason Schrock, 40, is an independent operations consultant who has lived in Henniker four years and has four children in school. He has never held an elected office.

He said he has been “consulting on school operations for nearly 12 years” and wants to use that experience.

“I’d like to find whether there are any opportunities to free up teachers and administrative staff to reduce distractions so they can even better do what they are trained to do,” he said.

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As for EFAs he said “I would like to see a more rigorous validation of the educational requirements” not just income requirements” to ensure that the money is actually helping students.

“Public schools need to be well-funded, need to be valued, need to be expanded in their offerings to families and students, and we need to support our educators and administrators,” he said.

Jessica Lescarbeau, 37, moved back to Henniker 3 years ago where her family has been for two decades. She works for the state Department of Education overseeing certain federal grants.

She said she decided to run because “we’ve consistently been in a decline in terms of proficiency data (for students). … Before it gets any worse I want to take this opportunity while my kids are in school.”

“As a district we’re settling currently with what’s being done in terms of intervention. … It’s not good enough for the kids, we’re not seeing those outcomes,” she said, citing the need for “programs such as high-impact tutoring to make sure these kids aren’t falling behind.

As far as costs, she said “teacher salary has consistently gone up while outcomes have gone down. I don’t love that direct correlation.”

And while she agrees that EFAs as currently funded are taking too much money from public education, she thought income eligibility should be expanded because it currently depends on a factor – federal poverty level – that hasn’t changed in a long time.

BUDGET: The proposed operating budget of $10.73 million is an increase of $291,019 or 2.79% above the budget approved a year ago. Salaries and insurance, as always, are the main drivers of the increase. Transportation costs are also rising as part of a five-year bus contract signed by the SAU plus the school is adding baseball and softball which adds a few thousand in expenses.

NOTEWORTHY ARTICLES: A proposed three-year contract for the 28 paraprofessionals and 8 support staff – custodians and secretaries – in the Henniker Community School. It would give paraprofessionals a projected average annual pay hike of $3,057 in year one, $1,487 in year two and $1,472 in year three. That would come about largely by increasing the pay range from $16-$25 per hour to $17.50-$28 per hour. Support staff would get an extra $1.50 an hour, on average.

WHEN AND WHERE: Election day for candidates and all warrant articles is Tuesday, March 11, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Henniker Community School.