Merrimack Valley School Board Chair Tracy Bricchi accused some district residents of “border[ing] on libel” at the conclusion of a contentious budget hearing Tuesday that saw some attendees call out the board and its administrators for what they described as a lack of transparency and accountability.

“I’m disgusted that there are people out there who would think that your elected officials would actually try to pull one over on you, because that is not at all what happened,” Bricchi said.

The comment was made in response to a claim by Boscawen resident Bill Heinz that the district had potentially acted fraudulently in trying to present artificially low projected school district tax rates. Heinz ultimately withdrew his accusation after Superintendent Randy Wormald acknowledged he had made a mistake on the tax rate numbers and needed to re-run them.

The exchange, however, highlighted the tension between residents and district leaders felt throughout the three-hour budget hearing, which occurred weeks after Wormald disclosed the district had spent $2 million last school year that it did not have.

“I am very surprised that the school board, or some of you, didn’t apologize to the people here tonight for the deficit last year,” said Louise Andrus, a Republican state representative from Salisbury who is running for a school board seat this March. “We want accountability, honesty and transparency, and we don’t have it.”

The frustration spilled over into the discussion of next year’s proposed budget of $51.6 million, which would be a 7% increase over this year’s $48.3 million budget.

Some residents openly speculated about attempting to cut the budget at the annual meeting on March 6.

“Pembroke Academy last year, they had their budget reduced by $3 million,” said Ned Lizotte of Loudon. “I have a friend of mine that’s a teacher there, and they’ve been able to make the budget cuts and adjustments and stuff like that. School’s still going along fine; they’re doing fine.”

(Previous Monitor reporting has found that the cuts in Pembroke have prompted the elimination of 27 positions and the departures of many more educators and administrators.)

The rise in Merrimack Valley’s proposed budget comes despite the fact that the district plans to eliminate six positions, three of which will be classroom teaching positions at Loudon Elementary, which has seen declining enrollment.

The school board said much of the budget increase is driven by fixed costs that are not easily controllable.

Special education services – which school districts are legally mandated to provide – account for $1.2 million, or about one-third, of the increase, while health and dental insurance plans account for $964,000, or 29%, of the increase.

The school administrative unit is attempting to change insurance providers and has recently hired a director of student services to consider creative ways to reduce special education costs, district leaders said Tuesday.

Some of the criticism of the budget grew personal.

“Randy, since you brought up your contract, what does it say about doing your job?” asked Loudon resident Jen Mercer. “There was a $2 million overrun with no transparency, so please help me understand how you think it’s okay, that if you do your job, you deserve a … raise.”

Wormald responded that he was under a previously agreed-upon contract. He will receive a 4% raise next year, from $165,000 to $172,000.

Not all of the comments made by the roughly 100 residents who attended the meeting were critical of the school board and district leaders.

“I just want to say that this special ed department has been amazing to my family,” said Webster resident Alexis Jeannotte, whose daughter receives special education services from the district.

Some residents also trained their ire on the state’s school funding model, which puts the highest burden on local property taxpayers to fund K-12 education of any state in the country, according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute.

“Where the fight should begin is down in Concord, not here,” said Salisbury resident Lorna Carlisle. “We can certainly look at line items, but it’s down in Concord where the biggest part of this happens.”

The debate over the budget divided not only residents, but also the school board itself.

Salisbury representatives and family members Peggy Jones-Blanchard and Julia Jones both voted against proposing the $51.6 million budget, though it ultimately passed 8-2 with one abstention anyway.

Jones said she voted no because she didn’t believe the budget struck the appropriate balance between the needs of taxpayers and students, pointing specifically to a cumulative proposed increase of $200,000 on site and building improvement.

“There has to be a happy medium where the public can afford to stay in the district and have the students of that population/community receive the education they deserve,” Jones wrote in a statement.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.