Extra Credit

Some good news: the Newmarket Teacher's Association voted on Wednesday to switch health care providers resulting in an anticipated savings of $357,000. Yes, that's right, $357,000 IN SAVINGS.

I have a feeling that there's a lot behind this decision. I know a little about the history between the Teachers Association, the Town, the SAU, and the community and I'm pretty sure that things said by all sides have been unfair at times. 

I keep thinking about ways to write about this and take all sides into account. But for now I'm just going to say thank you to the teachers. You didn't have to make this switch, but you did it and I'm grateful. 

I hope that the community recognizes this and stands behind your efforts.

We'll be watching.

This is just the beginning. 

There are real issues facing Newmarket and our State in the coming months and years. The last several months have taught me how important it is to be informed and to hold our elected officials accountable. 

OK, Marcia, William, Michael and Patty. It's time to show us what you've got. 

One. More. Day.

Well folks, this is it. One more day until the election and no matter who wins or loses, at least we can all go back to answering our phones again.

I've spent most of the last 30 or so days talking about Adam Schroadter's and Josh Davenport's voting records. This has not been a question of whether or not these guys are nice people--they are. But being nice isn't a good enough reason for me to vote for them. Too much is at stake.

I've written that Adam Schroadter and Josh Davenport

• voted to allow guns on college campuses and in the State House
• voted against funding for drug and alcohol treatment
• voted against funding for the Head Start program 
• voted to divert taxpayer money to private and religious schools 
• voted to repeal public kindergarten 
• voted to eliminate compulsory school attendance
• voted to allow parents to object to school curriculum for any reason
• voted for the Voter ID law
• voted to eliminate gun licensing requirements 
• voted to legally allow businesses to discriminate against gay couples
• voted to defund Planned Parenthood
• voted for removing preventive health services for women from benefits expected to be covered by insurance companies
• voted to force doctors to give false information to women seeking abortions 
• voted to repeal NH's participation in RGGI
• they voted for Right to Work
• they voted to expand the death penalty

And those are just the votes I've written about. There are more. I think these votes are wrong for our town and wrong for New Hampshire.

Check out Granite State Progress to look at detailed voting records for all the candidates.

I'll be voting for Marcia Moody, Michael Cahill, William Connery and Patricia Lovejoy.

But whoever you vote for, just make sure you vote.

Resources

Still undecided? Want to know more? 

Here are some great resources:

http://www.dnhpe.org/--all about education in New Hampshire.
http://votesmart.org/-- this is a great site. You can check local and national issues/votes.
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/--this is a link to the New Hampshire State House landing page. From here, you can find out who your reps are and see their voting records.
http://www.AisFor.org/- this is a great site about women's and reproductive issues.
http://granitestateprogress.org/ - look up your reps here. Find out how they voted on issues important to you.

Know who you're voting for!

3 Days

With just a few days to go, Seacoast Media has been endorsing candidates for the local state races. I read both the Herald and the News-Letter so I was shocked to see that they endorsed Adam Schroadter and Josh Davenport on Friday. Here's the quote:

Both are fiscal conservatives who want to grow New Hampshire's economy while watching out for existing small businesses. They will work hard for solutions to education funding initiatives such as school building aid as Newmarket faces a tough road ahead in renovating or building a new Newmarket Junior/Senior High School. They will also be a watchdog for Newmarket and other communities in the Great Bay watershed as they face hundreds of millions of dollars in potential upgrades to waste water treatment plants being mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

I was surprised because one of the first parts of the paper I read is the editorial and I tend to agree with many of the things written there. I don't think that anyone would argue that the paper tends to lean a little to the left and so do I. 

Yes, they are both fiscally conservative. No, I haven't seen any funding initiatives to help assist with school building aid or education in general. Both have voted in favor of the moratorium on school building aid and to support voucher systems, eliminating kindergarten and eliminating compulsory school attendance. These measures won't help Newmarket schools.

So I'm left wondering, do you read your own paper? Perhaps you missed...

• An editorial denouncing lack of services for mentally ill. Guess who voted to cut that funding?
• An editorial praising Gov. Lynch for recognizing the importance of education and training. Guess who voted against the community college system and voted for severe cuts to the university system?
• An editorial denouncing the voter suppression campaign in New Hampshire among students and the Voter ID law in general. Guess who supported those bills?
• An editorial denouncing HB 1264--a bill that would legalize discrimination against gay and lesbians. 
• And in another opinion piece about this controversial legislation that only 85 house members voted for Shir Haberman wrote: "With all state representatives up for election this fall it is good to remember the eight legislators, all Republicans, who represent Seacoast communities and were among the bill's supporters, and to vote accordingly in November. They were Paul Brown and Kathleen Hoelzel of Raymond, Joshua Davenport and Adam Schroadter of Newmarket, Amy and Lawrence Perkins of Seabrook, Kenneth Weyler of Kingston and William Smith of New Castle."
• An editorial denouncing the repeal of New Hampshire's involvement with RGGI. Guess who voted in favor of that?

Maybe Seacoast Media Group should follow it's own advice and take a harder look at the records of the candidates it endorses. 

Back to school.

While everyone has been busy thinking about the upcoming presidential elections, our Superintendent and School Board have continued to work toward finding solutions for our school facilities.

Here's what's been happening:

• Dr. Hayes, Principal Chris Andriski and members of the school board met with representatives from Oyster River School District on Monday, October 22, to discuss tuitioning Newmarket students to ORSD. According to the information presented by Dr. Hayes, they discussed multiple scenarios including tuitioning High School kids, tuitioning Jr. and Senior High kids and a Co-op agreement. They did not discuss any details about what any of these agreements might look like. ORSD has been working on a demographic study to determine what their capacity is and will be in future years (basically looking to see if there would be enough room for our kids) and they were hoping to have the results of that study by the end of October, but Dr. Hayes had not received that info as of last night's board meeting. ORSD is also talking to other districts. 

• At the Facilities Committee meeting on Tuesday Dr. Hayes presented this info along with plans for both a Renovation/Addition project and a new school (both with and without an auditorium). There was some great discussion around these proposals and I hope that the discussion will continue with the larger community. (See info below)

• At last night's School Board meeting there was some discussion around how to proceed with the Fire and Life Safety concerns at the Jr. Sr High School. Dr. Hayes suggested that the SB should make a decision about whether or not to move forward with making plans for to address these concerns. The sense I got was that he doesn't want next summer to roll in and us get caught with our pants down because we suddenly have to scramble to get the work completed by the September 2015 deadline. The SB asked some good questions and raised valid concerns. It looks like they will continue this discussion at another meeting and they plan to include the architect and Chief Malasky to, if nothing else, just get everyone on the same page.

• Another issue brought up at last night's SB meeting has to do with Impact fees, which I've written about before. The SB is again requesting impact fees be released--this time for buying out the lease on the modulars at the elementary school. It looks like our 3 year plan for those is turning into a much longer plan and this will save us money in the end. This is on the Town Council's agenda for their November 7th meeting--hopefully the discussion will go smoothly.

• Lastly, Dr. Hayes announced 2 public forums where he will discuss the school options. Here is his message:  

I am scheduling a number of meetings and forums during the month of November to discuss with members of the community the options being considered for better facilities for our Jr/Sr High School. The Facilities Committee and I would like to hear your thoughts on the possibility of sending grades 6-12 to Oyster River for their education and your thoughts on the several options for building a new school in Newmarket. On Tuesday, November 13th, I will be speaking at the Elementary School’s PTA meeting at 6:30 PM. Public forums have been scheduled for Wednesday, November 14th, at 9 AM and Monday, November 19th, at 7 PM, both meetings to be held in the Town Council Chamber. Our architects will be joining us at these meetings. I also will be available to meet with Jr/Sr High faculty, staff, and administration on November 13th at 2:45 PM. I plan to meet with a number of student advisory groups between November 6th and 28th. I sincerely hope that citizens, parents, students and employees can find time to participate in one of these sessions. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at jimhayes@newmarket.k12.nh.us.

If you're looking for more info, please visit http://newmarketsolutions.org/  and check out the Newmarket Solutions Facebook page to stay as informed as possible on these important issues.

5 Days

The recent hurricane has a lot of people thinking about the environment and I'm no different.  Today's post centers around HB 519, which repeals New Hampshire's Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).

According to ConservationNH, RGGI is a "regional market-based program designed to reduce air pollution at the lowest cost. It was instituted by ten northeastern states to help limit carbon emissions, encourage innovation in alternative energy, and improve energy efficiency."

The Republican led House passed HB 519, repealing New Hampshire's participation in this program. Ten leading environmental organizations signed a letter in opposition to the bill: 

"The repeal of this important program is shortsighted, would undermine the state's environmental and energy goals, is not in the best interest of ratepayers, and would create an atmosphere where New Hampshire citizens would question the Legislature's commitment to reducing carbon emissions and our reliance on foreign oil. Rather than repeal, we urge a careful and thorough review of the RGGI program in order to make any needed reforms."

The conversation around RGGI is complicated. Here are a few articles and resources to better understand the program: 
http://conservationnh.org/climate-energy/a-rggi-primer/
http://des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/air/tsb/tps/climate/rggi/index.htm
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20120611-NEWS-206110317
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Greenhouse_Gas_Initiative

Adam Schroadter and Josh Davenport both voted to withdraw from RGGI.