Efficiency?

I walked into the Budget Committee meeting a few minutes late and the presentation by the Efficiency Committee was already underway. I missed the opening, but it was clear that Bob Coffey had distributed his "Worst Case Tax Scenario", a document that seems intent on terrifying all homeowners. To give you an idea, one of the "Worst Case Scenario" items includes a $75 million new school with no state aid. I may have missed something at the start of the meeting, but where  this red herring came from is a mystery to me.

Here's what I understand based on my very limited participation in the Efficiency Committee and general attendance at meetings over the last several months: the Efficiency Committee has been spearheaded by Mr. Coffey, Mike LaBranche and Al Zink who sought to find "efficiencies" between the Town and School (hence the name.) They have expressed the desire to work together as a community rather than two separate entities so that we can identify our needs and do our best to plan for the future as a whole.

Sounds great.

Unfortunately, as Mr. Zink pointed out they didn't have the support of the community. Huh.

Let me point out a few things.

1. For a group that is about 2 elected bodies working together, shouldn't it be represented by both groups? Every time I encountered the Efficiency Committee, it was clearly being run by Mr. Zink, Mr. Coffey and Mr. LaBranche. Having an active School Board member would have been a good start to getting buy in from that segment of the community. 
2. You can't talk about working together and be accusatory at the same time. It just doesn't work. A lot of things were said without being said out loud and it was clear that the Efficiency Committee (read Mr. Coffey, Mr. Zink and Mr. LaBranche) thinks the School Board didn't do enough (even though it's supposedly a representative committee of both the Town and School. Or is it?)
3. Is it a failure just because it didn't work out the way you wanted it to or as quickly as you would have liked? I don't think so.

I see value in the pursuits of the Efficiency Committee, even if I don't see our future to be as dire as Mr. Coffey has described. I hope this group can accept that they have helped to start the process but they have a long way to go. Only collaboration will lead to true change. 

This Week

Important meetings this week:

• Monday-Budget Committee meeting at 6:30 in Town Hall. Find the agenda here.
• Wednesday-Facilities Committee meeting at 5:30 in Town Hall.

Also- one of my favorite resources, Defending NH Public Education, has had a makeover (and a name change). It's now called Advancing New Hampshire Public Education and it is a great resource to keep up to date with happenings in Concord related to public education.

Have a great week!

Time flies when you're....

It's been a year since a sudden - and somewhat unexpected - tax rate took most homeowners in Newmarket by surprise. A very long year.

In the wake of that particular tax hike, Facebook forums were created and groups were formed. People fought hard to ensure that we would have options for our school facilities and lots of people started to pay attention. I started this blog to try and connect the dots as much for me as for others.  

During a recent school board meeting, many people got up to support programs that they care about which were cut from the budget for the next fiscal year. I applaud all of those people for attending the meeting and getting involved. Sometimes it just takes one issue to get you hooked.

So now I ask that you stay involved.

The budget process starts for real on Monday with the first meeting of the budget committee. Both the Town and the School budgets are with them now, but as citizens we still have a voice in the process (not to mention a vote.) The Budget Committee answers to us, the citizens of Newmarket. 

As I've said before, I'm not sure that those program cuts are save-able this year, but let's not kid ourselves, further cuts are on their way.

And while we won't have a building project on the ballot this year, there could be something about a possible agreement with Oyster River down the road and we all need to make sure that we have the facts and weigh that decision very carefully. 

So, what to do?

• Start attending meetings. Meetings are posted on the Town website and I'll do my best to write about upcoming meetings here. We must hold our elected officials accountable. 
• "Like" Newmarket Solutions on Facebook--a lot of info will get passed on that way. Also visit the Newmarket Solutions website for accurate information. Solutions can be created when we all come together.
• Send emails/letters to School Board, Town Council and Budget Committee members as needed. Let your voice be heard.
• Talk to your friends and neighbors.
• Attend the Deliberative Session in February. There will be much more info to follow about what the Deliberative Session is and why it's important.
• Vote in March. 

Thanks for paying attention.

Cuts (take 2)

At the school board meeting last night people rallied behind a couple of the proposed cuts-the Enrichment position at the Elementary School and the School to Coordinator position at the Jr. Sr. High School. Other cuts include (but this isn't a complete list) a SPED coordinator, 2 paraprofessionals and a reading specialist. 

Honestly, I'm a mess about all of this. 

Every time I started to think about what to say in defense of the Enrichment program (a program both of my boys have benefited from) I kept coming back to one thing: What's next? As much as I want to think that we can salvage these positions, I'm not sure that it's possible. And as sad as that makes me, I shudder to think about what's coming.  

I believe in public education and support the right for ALL students to get an adequate education, including mine--and I don't believe that squeezing every dime out of the budget is responsible. We're not talking about a road that isn't getting paved or a water main that isn't getting flushed. We're talking about our kids.

The School Board is attempting to balance the roles of overseeing the education of our children while being good stewards of our tax dollars and I see their dilemma. But it's not OK to tell our teachers and kids to do more with less. If we continue down this path, where will we be in 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? 

Chipping away little by little, year after year continues to dilute the quality of education that we provide in Newmarket, but we can decide when we've had enough.

People stood up in defense of these positions last night and I want to make sure that those people know that last night is just the beginning of this process. Cliff Chase outlined the budget procedure and there will again be time for public input. It is important for people to attend the budget meetings, attend the deliberative session and then to vote in March. It's going to take a little work, but it can be done.

An important reminder: it's not up to the budget committee to make the final decision--it's up to the voters. 

Town Council Recap

Just a couple thoughts from last night's meeting:

• Apparently the councilors were treated to a photograph of a gunky pipe that was quite shocking. As they talked about it, Sean Grieg (I'm not sure what his title is, but I like to think of him as the water guru) said that the build up is the result of not having the ability to flush the mains. Not spending money on preventive maintenance and having it come back to bite us in the form of a costly project...well, at least we're consistent. I'm just glad that my drinking water isn't flowing through that pipe. 

• "I'm upset."-Mr. Carmichael.  Let me just say that I'm starting to really like Ed Carmichael. Last night, Dr. Hayes presented a request to use ~$56,000 in impact fees to the Town Council for the purpose of buying out the lease on the Elementary School modulars. This was on the agenda, after being pushed to the workshop session from the last meeting in order for the Council to have the opportunity to discuss it.  But last night they were faced with a legal opinion that everyone agreed was very vague. As Mr. Carmichael pointed out, there was time to work on this and he was upset that they couldn't give Dr. Hayes an answer. The Town Administrator really should have sought clarification from the attorney and the issue could have been resolved last night.  I will point out that most councilors seemed supportive of the school's use of the fees and they were just looking for clarification-I just wish that had been done in advance. 

• After a lot of talk about what they could and couldn't say and if they should or shouldn't talk about wastewater, our water guru Sean Grieg gave a presentation about sewer rates and the proposed wastewater treatment plant guidelines. I am not a water user and admit that this doesn't affect me and because of that I haven't given much thought to the water/sewer use rates. One thing is certain--they are going to go up and by quite a lot. Along with how Newmarket rates could go up, Sean presented a comparison of other towns' rates. I admit that sometimes I fixate on weird details, but what really struck me is that right now Durham is paying almost a dollar less than Newmarket and they are already discharging <8 milligrams per liter of nitrogen (one of two magic numbers that we are trying to reach per the EPA guidelines). Why are they paying less than us now and not faced with a multi million dollar upgrade in the near future? Because, according to Sean, they did it a long time ago and probably got state funding to do it. Sound familiar?

Cuts

I just wrote this line in an email to someone:
"Something's gotta go, so what do you want that to be?"

Here's one of the big differences between the school budget and the town budget---when we start talking about cuts to the school budget, we are talking about programs that make a difference to our kids' education. And yeah, parents tend to get a little emotional about that.

I honestly don't envy the school board right now. 

The most wonderful time.

This is a busy time of year. The town is waiting for the tax rate to be set and the Town Council and School Board are talking about budgets. We have several school facilities solutions being discussed and everyone is saying that they don't want their taxes to go up. With that in mind, I thought I would point out some important upcoming meetings:

• PTA Meeting--Tuesday November 13 at 6:30pm. The PTA is having their monthly meeting. Dr. Hayes will be available to PTA members to discuss school facility options and answer questions.
• Public Forum-Wednesday November 14th at 9am. Dr. Hayes has invited the community to meet at Town Hall to discuss the current school facilities options including the talks with ORSD and the various renovation and new school proposals. The architect will also be present to answer questions. 
• Town Council Meeting-Wednesday November 14th at 7pm. The Town Council will be discussing the school's request to use $58,000 of impact fees. I wrote about impact fees back in June after a request was made by the school at that time. The discussion bugged me last time and I'm interested to hear how it is discussed on Wednesday night. You can view the full meeting agenda here.
• School Board meeting-Thursday November 15th at 7pm. A couple positions are on the chopping block for next year. This is the public's opportunity to voice their concerns before we are too far into the budget process. The rumors that I heard are that the enrichment position at the elementary school and the school to career coordinator are two positions that are being considered for cutting. I guess I thought that the huge amount in savings with the health plan switch might have offset the need to make these cuts. I don't know what other cuts may have been proposed. The agenda was not posted on the website, but public comment is always welcomed at the beginning of each school board meeting.
• Public Forum-Monday November 19th at 7pm. Another community forum to discuss the school options. See above for more info.
• Budget Committee Meeting- Monday November 26th at 7pm. No agenda has been posted, but my guess is that they'll start going through both the town and school budgets. 

And there's only 42 days until Christmas...