Candidates

There have been a lot of conversations recently about candidates and I decided to try and spread the word about the people I am supporting for various boards in our upcoming election on March 10th. Here's my list:

SCHOOL BOARD
As you may know, there are 6 people competing for 2 spots on the School Board. This is the most important race we'll have in a long time, considering the important issues our community will be grappling with over the coming year. We have a facility to deal with, a superintendent to hire, teachers' contracts to negotiate and full day kindergarten to implement. Oh, and we still need to educate the students of Newmarket.

The people running are all good people--but that doesn't mean that I personally think they would be (or have been) good school board members. The dynamics this year are especially tricky and I feel that we need a combination of expertise and composure. Civility will be key. Compromise will be necessary. Fresh voices will be important.

With that in mind, I support Craig Dionne and Kimberly Shelton for School Board. I know them both and have had the opportunity to talk to each of them about their run for the School Board and what they can bring to the table. I trust that they will serve our community well, act with integrity and work hard to move Newmarket forward.

Newmarket Solutions distributed questions to all of the School Board candidates and five have responded so far. You can see their responses here. There was also an article in today's Exeter Newsletter.

TOWN COUNCIL
There are 2 candidates running for 2 seats, so this isn't a contested race. That said, Amy Burns is the only person I can vote for the Town Council. She has been involved in the school debate for a few years and has regularly attended Town Council and Budget Committee meetings. She will be a great new voice on the Town Council and I look forward to working with her.

There is another race for the one-year Council seat. Honestly, my plan is to write in Dan Wright for that seat. He served Newmarket well over the past three years and I have a lot of respect for him, even if we don't always see eye to eye on every issue.

BUDGET COMMITTEE
There are 4 people running for 3 seats. This is one place where significant change has happened over the last few years and it is exciting to see this shift. Dan Hill, Jeff Raab and Dan Smith are the obvious choices for me. They are all reasonable, thoughtful and fiscally responsible people who will serve our community well. An article in the Exeter Newsletter profiled the budget committee candidates last week.
 
We vote in TWO weeks.

Bond issue.

The warrant was briefly mentioned at the school board meeting last night. (The warrant is the list of items that goes before the voters at the Deliberative session and what we eventually vote on in March.) A copy of the proposed warrant was distributed to the school board members and a quick overview was provided. 

The first article on the warrant is a bond. No explanation was given and no discussion took place. Though this was the first mention of a bond that I can recall, not one school board member looked surprised and not one question was asked. When the board was asked during public comment for clarification and explanation, the chair replied that the discussion at the workshop on January 8th would focus on the warrant.

Here's what is concerning. 

I'm shocked at the idea of the school board proposing a bond at the 11th hour – the Deliberative session is in just 6 weeks – with no explanation.

There are many questions that need to be asked now. A bond for what? Is there a proposal? If so, who has been working on this? Why hasn't the community been engaged? What about the JAC? Does the Superintendent really think that he would be able to rally enough support and provide enough information to the community to pass a bond at this late date? 

The superintendent and the school board clearly have a lot of work to do -- not just to put the warrant together, but to engage and inform the community. And they need to do it now.

Summary.

Did you catch last night's School Board meeting? Here are some of the highlights:












Hiring the Interim Superintendent was supposed to save us 20%, according to SB member Nathan Lunney. But this Superintendent is making $13,000 more, working less and we have outsourced a big component of his job to consultants. Where's the savings? And if the SB decides to contract with him for another year, which they seem on track to do, then we start the new fiscal year $13,000 in the red because they are choosing not to budget accurately for this position. How is this good for our district?

Last night, the School Board chair talked about "responsible bonding" when comparing recently approved building projects in other districts. However, the numbers were presented completely without context. I think it's important to note that our town hasn't completed any significant upgrades to facilities in 27 years. Is that responsible?

I don't know how a 36% turnover compares to other districts, but it seems significant to me. 

Transparency?

Earlier today I was reviewing the School Board packet and was surprised to learn that Dan Wright had been appointed to the Joint Advisory committee. Though this was the rumor, I would have preferred to be informed officially as a councilor, rather than reading it in the School Superintendent's notes. 

I continue to hope for transparency. 

184 Days

We vote in 184 days.

I know that seems like a long way off, and it is, but the School Board has some significant work to do in that time. With all the talk about options and credibility and transparency and consultants, I'm surprised that there has been so little discussion about the final phase of the fire and life safety plan for the Jr. Sr. High School.

184 days.

It's been my understanding that the School Board doesn't want to continue to work with Harriman. I won't pretend to know how long it takes to put together the RFP. Or conduct interviews for architects. Or have them come up with a plan that will suit our needs. But warrant articles are usually due in mid January and I'm concerned that this School Board hasn't even started the process.

Practice what you preach.

 Last night, after the School Board met with legal counsel in a "non meeting" (a non meeting is defined by RSA 91A:2), the School Board chairperson read a statement describing how the joint committee/advisory board will be formed, which I have copied below with my thoughts in bold. 

"The board is, through consensus, comfortable with a joint advisory committee of eight."

First question--why did this discussion need to happen with counsel? 

"Two of whom will be appointed by the school board, two by the Town Council and the remainder would be selected by a process by sending out a general notice to all members of the community interested in serving on this committee."

Please define "general notice." The superintendent, when discussing communication during another point in the evening wasn't even aware that the district had a regular electronic newsletter. I was surprised that not one board member mentioned this when he looked confused.  How will the community be notified?
There needs to be a significant awareness campaign on this issue.

"We are going to develop a process that will solicit interest from members of the community who wish to serve. We will develop more details later. The deadline for submission is September 15, 2014."

I'm having a hard time with this timeline. "They" are going to develop a process. When? How? Who? The deadline for submission is in 10 days, but the process hasn't been developed yet. The next School Board meeting is after the submission deadline, so will this be yet another item decided by one or two people, out of the public view? 

"After the deadline application the board will meet to look at letters of interest, provide comment to the four members of the committee, and then those members will determine which four of the community would serve on the committee."

I sincerely hope that this process happens in public. There is no need to do this behind closed doors, though that does seem to be the preferred method of conducting business by this board. 

"Subject to the final ratification from the Board, which is consistent with our policy."

During the Town Council meeting on Wednesday, Chairman Levy stated "I'm hoping that tomorrow the School Board will make a determination to create a real joint committee." I'm curious to see if this meets his definition of "real joint committee." It's clear that there is still confusion about the composition of this committee and who's "in charge" and Mr. Levy seemed frustrated by the School Board's decision to adhere to its own policies. 

I understand the need for non public sessions and non meetings - non-meetings are typical when a board meets with counsel. But when they started the regular meeting and the chair gave her report, it seemed to me that the School Board changed action that had been discussed and voted on in a previous public meeting. 

They did so in a non public consultation with counsel and then presented it to the community without any discussion or real explanation as to how they arrived at the decision they did. The chair simply read the above statement from her iPad and then moved on to the next item.

Overall, I'm concerned about the lack of transparency with this board and this process. Transparency has been their mantra, but they have yet to practice it.

A separate email will be sent directly to the School Board and the Superintendent to try to get some of these questions answered. I'll keep you posted. 

Summer's over.

If you haven't watched last night's joint School Board/Town Council meeting, I encourage you to do so. Though I have been critical of the process, I applaud the efforts of both the School Board and Town Council Chairs thus far. I was impressed with Mr. Bell's responses to many of the questions and think he will be an asset to our community. Overall, the biggest takeaway from last night should be that the entire School Board and Town Council met together and in the end, the proposal to hire the consultants was approved unanimously. This is a very important first step.

With that said, I have a few thoughts about the meeting I would like to share:

• More effective communication is clearly needed. It's apparent that there is some communication among the School Board, but mentions of emails discussing agenda items that were unanswered by the Chair and the case of all School Board members not being aware that they would be voting on the proposal last night are examples that there is a breakdown in communication somewhere.
• It was clear that Mr. Evangelista was unaware that action would be taken and his frustration was understandable. For whatever reason, both the School Board and Town Council Chairs have not been as forthcoming as they could be regarding this proposal and getting information from them has been difficult. The Town Council is not perfect, but at least when we head into meetings we typically have a clear sense of what we will be voting on during that particular meeting. This allows for adequate preparation. I don't agree with what Matt did last night, but I do understand his frustration. For some reason, getting clear information on this issue has been challenging at best. For example, there was no mention to the Town Council that we would be voting on this proposal either, until I questioned the Chair at the end of our regular Town Council meeting on Wednesday. I am hopeful that this issue will be rectified moving forward. 
• People need to stop talking about the "three failed school votes." There were two school votes, one in 2006 and one in 2014. The other vote was for land.
• I'm glad the 2 boards were able to meet and I hope that can be a somewhat regular occurrence, but I do think we need to adjust the format. It's cumbersome with such a large group and I think some points were lost because of it.
• The School Board's leadership is struggling. Ms. Durocher-Wentworth lost control of the meeting, allowing comments from the audience and from the Town Council Chair, losing track of votes and allowing her frustration to distract her. Asserting one's authority without being perceived unfavorably is not an easy task but the Chair is going to need to find that balance moving forward. Another meeting like last night is unacceptable.
• The consultants will need to look at the totality of documentation in order to move forward. This should include the most recent new school proposal and add/reno drawings that were done. One of the complaints is that those buildings were over-designed for the needs of our district and I think it would be valuable for the consultants to use those as a starting point. There is nothing to lose by reviewing past efforts that we invested so much time and money in. It was not my impression from reading the proposal that we would be asking the consultants to evaluate any one plan, but to help our community decide on a course of action that will best fit both our educational and economic needs.
• "It's ok to disagree without being disagreeable." 

The School Board has a huge task in front of it and it is as clear as ever that they need to figure out how to work together or this process will fail. 

A little push.

This past Spring, community members came to the Town Council asking for the Council and the School Board to work together to find a solution for our school facilities. Now it's August and so far this hasn't happened. 

To be clear, it is my understanding that the Council chair and the School Board chair have had some meetings. But there has been no involvement from the Council at-large, no discussions with the Council, no public input from other council members and no updates from the chair during Council meetings. So to characterize any plans as a collaboration between the Council and the SB is simply incorrect. I respect Mr. Levy's opinion, but he is just one of seven and has neither asked for nor received any guidance from the Council as a whole.

 

I apologize and take my share of responsibility for this. When I initially heard that the Council chair and the School Board chair were meeting several weeks ago, I did ask for an update in one of our meetings but was provided with little information. And there has been nothing since. Being new to the Council, I chose not to push too much at the time.

Clearly it's time to push.

Rainy day update.

I know it's been quiet here lately. The transition from the end of the school year to the beginning of summer has proven to be an exceptionally busy time. It's a flurry of end-of-year activities, followed by the race to make sure plans are all set for the summer and then the almost manic need to make sure each ray of sunlight goes un-wasted. For some reason it always takes me by surprise.

But now that we're mid-way through July, I feel like I can breathe and get caught up on a few things. And having a rainy day to force me inside is helping.

So, I'm going to take this opportunity to give you a little update on things happening in town. This isn't an exhaustive list, just the items that have caught my attention recently.

1. Development in Newmarket continues. By now, everyone is aware that the project by the golf course is well underway. But did you know that they've also broken ground on the Chinburg development behind the library, which as far as I know is still planned to be a nano-brewery and space for a restaurant (rumored to possibly be the new home of Panzanella's).  The Planning Board also just approved the Riverdale garage project, which is slated to become a high end market and Aroma Joe's drive-thru. The Planning Board has also been reviewing an application for a 10-home subdivision off of Bald Hill Rd. Not surprisingly, this is also a Chinburg project. 

2. There was a meeting last week to present the plans for pedestrian crossings in downtown. Maybe you remember the plans for the skybridge near the Newmarket Mills entrance? Well, that was scrapped quite a while ago, but pedestrian safety remains a concern. Studies have been done, sight lines measured and now there are plans for increased signage, improved walkways and even an additional crosswalk close to Riverworks. The full engineering report is available on the town website. 

3. The Dam. Remember last summer when the draw down of the river was done and people in the community were outraged? Well, the report is ready to view on the town website and I am adding a link here. In addition, the Town Council will be discussing the formation of another Dam Committee, with a resolution in the first reading tonight and I'm anticipating a vote on it at our August 6th meeting. If the dam is something you're interested in, now is the time to pay attention and get involved.

4. New faces. There are some new faces in the school district this summer and articles in the Exeter Newsletter and Foster's have highlighted some of these. There is a new Superintendent, new NES Principal and a soon-to-be-determined new school board member.

Keep enjoying the summer and I'll update as the weather permits!

Tick tock.

The School Board will need to have a completed, approved budget to the budget committee in approximately 31 weeks. 

To put that in perspective, they have 12 more regularly scheduled meetings until then. 

12.

And still no direction on facilities. 

It's our process, too.

I'm puzzled by the sentiment at recent meetings and expressed by some in our community, that we should sit back and let the School Board's "process" unfold. 

Isn't it more important than ever for the community to be involved and to question time frames and ideas and to push the School Board to act responsibly and to be responsive to our concerns? Shouldn't we be involved now? Shouldn't the community be a part of the "process" that shapes the future of Newmarket?

I think we should take our example from the many people who stood up and spoke at the School Board meeting Thursday night. It's time for us to be in front of the school board (and Town Council, Planning Board, Budget Committee, etc.), asking them to respond to our requests, rather than sitting idly by, hoping they do the right thing. 

I suddenly have a lot to say.

I've been busy and the blog has been quiet. But after last night's Candidates forum, I realized that I have a lot to say (again.) 

Some of the comments on facebook have suggested that I should be running for School Board rather then Town Council. The reason being that I care about the school so much. So, here goes:

• Yes. I care about the school.

• I think every leader in our town should care about the school as it will have a lasting impact on our community in the coming decades. It is the place where the greatest number of town residents gather in one place on most days, it operates with a substantial budget, and it is inextricably linked to issues such as economic development, infrastructure planning, development and more.

• Caring about the school does not and has not stopped me from caring about other issues in our town. I care, and more importantly have worked to understand, our water issues, dam issues, road concerns and the economic issues facing our town. 

• I resent the underlying sentiment that because I am a mom, I should serve on the School Board rather than the Town Council. I am a mom. But I am also a lot more. 

I look forward to March 11.

Reminder.

I wrote this last year and as things start to heat up, I thought we could all use a reminder: 

The voters make the final decision. Clearly, the vote in March is important. That's where the final decisions get made when we all fill out our ballots. But, a lot happens prior to that vote and there are meetings that everyone should attend. 

The bulk of what we vote on has to do with money. The voters will decide the budgets for the following year for both the town and the school. Maybe you don't think it matters to you. But this isn't just about water, roads and schools. We get the privilege of deciding what kind of town we want to live in through Town Meeting every year. 

And that should matter to everyone. 

There are plenty of meetings that you can watch from the comfort of your living room, but these aren't them. You need to be there. 

Put these dates in your calendar: 

Public hearing: Monday, January 13 at 7pm
Bond hearing: Tuesday, January 21 at 7pm
Deliberative session: Saturday, February 8 
Voting Day: Tuesday, March 11. 

Cuts

There were some interesting suggestions made at last night's budget committee meeting.  

• Bigger class sizes at the Jr. Sr. High School. Combining math levels, for example. Is bigger better?

• "Looking at" classes like home ec and woodworking. For the record, they don't call it home ec anymore.

• Eliminating extra art classes like ceramics. Not sure why ceramics doesn't make the grade.

• Pay to play. It's a slippery slope.

• Cutting "optional" programs. My understanding of this is cutting electives. Interesting. Just because they're electives doesn't mean they aren't necessary.

• Bringing in consultants to deal with the "business" of special education. More on this later.

And this process is just getting started.

Back to square one.

School Board members from Newmarket and ORCSD met yesterday and the initial reports from that meeting don't sound promising for a tuition agreement between the two districts.

So what's next? 

A group of people approached the School Board in November to ask that the school designs be reevaluated to ensure that we are keeping it to the absolute minimum in both scale and cost. My understanding is that a committee has been formed and will be working on this over the next couple of weeks. The hope is to bring the cost down to something a majority in Newmarket can swallow.

And we are still looking at a budget that represents a significant tax increase if approved and warrant articles still need to be finalized.

Here's a list of meetings we should all be paying attention to:

School Board--Thursday 12/5 at 7pm
Budget Committee--Wednesday 12/11 at 6:30pm
School Board--Thursday 12/19 at 7pm

We go to the polls in 96 days. 

Cry me a river.

Last night was not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that I've cried in front of the school board. I wish I could talk about our kids' education without getting emotional, but it's just not in my DNA.

Here's what I said through the tears:

I’m here tonight to ask you to endorse a budget that accurately represents the cost of educating kids in our Town. 

I understand that our SPED costs are astronomical, through the roof, unlike anything we’ve seen before—pick your description. And I appreciate the need to educate all students in our district. 

But we can’t cut out the rest of the budget because SPED costs are high and funding is low. 

I’ve watched the recent budget workshops and want to add some comments. 

Computers are necessary and the 8-10 year old computers we currently have in our classrooms are unacceptable.

Document cameras aid the learning of all students, and while outfitting the entire Elementary school might not be an option this year, cutting them out entirely and hoping for a better year next year doesn’t seem like a smart plan to me. How has that worked out for us in the past?

Cutting classroom teachers is also unacceptable. We talk about what makes Newmarket a great district—start eliminating staff and increasing class sizes in the elementary school and let’s see what happens.

And while I understand that new textbooks for the High School might not be the best purchase with the Oyster River option still on the table, Smart Boards are. A Smart Board could easily be moved to the elementary school or put to use in the middle school should a tuition agreement happen. 

We SHOULD all be outraged at the tax burden on property owners in Newmarket and throughout the State. But let’s not take it out on the kids. Call your State Reps and let them know that this is the cost of their decisions in Concord. Tell them that they need to fight harder for us. 

For now, our community needs to accept what it costs to educate ALL OF the kids in Newmarket.

The School Board rose to the challenge last night and approved a budget that represents a roughly 7% increase. We can expect cuts to be made by the Budget Committee--we all need to pay attention to this process and fight for the education that we have here in Newmarket. 

But I'm not going to sit around and cry about this. Budget meetings will be held 11/25, 12/2, and 12/11 at 7pm. I'll be there and I hope you will be too. 

109 Days

This is the time of year when I start to beg you to show up at meetings. 

It's hard to get motivated to go out when it's dark and cold and you have better things to do, but now is when decisions get made and it helps to have people in the room. 

The School Board meets tonight at 7pm.

The Budget Committee meets on 11/25 and 12/2, both at 7pm,  to discuss the proposed school budget. 

There will be a public hearing in January and then we'll have the Deliberative Session on 2/8 and Voting Day on 3/11. 

We have 109 days until Voting Day. Let's get to work. 

Just the beginning.

I'm watching a recording of last week's School Board budget workshop and I'm sick about it. Not the School Board, not the budget workshop, but the astronomical increase in SPED costs and a decrease in State aid. You can read more about that here.

So, how do we make up the difference? A few suggestions were made during the meeting. Things like increasing SPED case managers' case loads, cutting classroom teachers at the elementary school and only funding what we're contractually obligated to fund. 

None of these suggestions had any real traction with the SB, but I doubt this is the last time we will hear them. 

For now, I'll let some of the School Board members' comments speak for themselves.

"I don't see where we can find the money." 

"How do we go on?"

"I've never seen an explosion in Special Ed like this before."

"I can't get my head around how we're going to find almost half a million bucks."

"We have a responsibility to the kids."

"We need to be prepared to stand up for the teachers that we have and justify why they're there."

"This is what it costs to educate kids."

The budget is on the agenda for tomorrow night's School Board meeting at 7pm. Tune in.

Annoyed again

During the School Board meeting last week, the Finance Director explained that we have approximately $600,000 in unanticipated Special Education costs. That's $600,000 that we didn't budget for, but need to find somewhere. 

I'm annoyed, because in addition to these extra expenses, we've seen our funding sources dwindle. It was mentioned on Thursday evening that one grant was reduced because of sequestration and Catastrophic Aide has been cut repeatedly. 

In order to get accurate numbers and better understand the situation, I scheduled a meeting with the SAU's Finance Director. I hope to better understand the process, the numbers and who's responsible. 

I'll keep you posted. 

Budget Season

It's that time of year again...Budget Season.

This year has started a little differently and the School Board budget workshops are being televised-something I advocated for and am thrilled that the SB decided to do. If you remember, last year many people in the school community were surprised by the proposed cuts-all of which were included in the final budget that passed and was eventually approved by the voters. 

I think it's important to note that our district has cut a total of 15.5 positions in the last 3 budget cycles. But again, this year seems to be different. At the beginning of his initial presentation to the School Board on October 24th, Dr. Hayes made the statement that we have tightened our belts as much as possible--there is no more room to cut. 

But, if everything presented were to pass as it is right now, it would represent a 6% increase in the operating budget. The community needs to know why. 

So what is in the budget? 

• An additional first grade teacher at NES due to increased enrollment.
• 2 mobile laptop carts for NES.
• 18 document cameras for the classrooms at NES-the PTA and other donations purchased some that are currently starting to be used, but each classroom should have one. 
• The replacement of 56 desktop computers for the classrooms and media center at NES--many of the computers at NES are 8-10 years old.
• 4.5 new paraprofessionals as a result of 12 unanticipated students with IEP's moving into our district.
• 5 Smartboards for the High School.
• Approximately $25,000 to replace and update textbooks for the High School-these funds will be used to replace Math textbooks that are damaged or worn out for multiple classes/levels, purchase Adobe photoshop textbooks and to purchase supplemental titles for the Jr. and Sr. High School. 

This is just a little taste of the proposed budget. You can look through the full document here. I also encourage you to watch the last budget presentation and to tune in to Channel 13 on Thursday to see the Elementary School and SAU budgets discussed in detail. If you have questions or want to support an item, email the School Board members or plan to attend one of the November meetings on the 7th or the 21st. 

The final budget goes to the Budget Committee by November 25th.