Mean Gene Okerlund might as well have been ringside for last night’s astonishing meeting of the Hooksett School Board. While the board did manage to decide it would pursue a one district strategy to replace Manchester as the school district that educated its high school kids if it won it’s breach of contract claim, the night was marred by testy exchanges with Board Chair Trisha “The Gavel” Korkosz who shut down John “The Angry Elf” Lyscars in the midst of an apology to Chucky the Superintendent for an errant facebook post about the district’s manifest. Things got particularly ugly when, toward the end of the meeting, “The Gavel” threatened to have Vice-Chairman David “The Pariah” Pearl removed by the cops for trying to discuss a motion the chair disallowed discussion on. That exchange came in the midst of the night’s marquee moment when “Chucky the Super” threatened to walk out of the meeting if he didn’t get a vote of confidence from the board after being questioned by The Elf and the Pariah about past statements regarding the board and why, given those statements, he’d not brought anything to them regarding the high school issue. That’s when he brought the folding chair into the ring and smacked The Pariah and The Angry Elf with it by accusing them of public bullying. Panicked as Chucky the Super was walking out of the room, The Gavel, who also complained earlier in the meeting about being publicly bullied, demanded and got a vote of confidence motion, the one she disallowed discussion on, and the grinning Chucky returned to the table before the meeting adjourned. We’ll have a lot to say about this this morning, you can bet on that.
The news continues after this.
In a facebook message to Girard at Large last night, Manchester Ward Ten School Board Member John Avard, chairman of the Negotiations Committee has released figures that show if Manchester’s teachers accept the deal offered by the school district and switched from their health insurance plan to the available Health Savings Account, they would see a net increase of cash in their pocket of nearly nine hundred thousand dollars once the estimated increases in benefit costs are deducted from the proposed pay raises. He says that staying status quo without a contract for the coming year will collectively cost teachers almost seventy thousand dollars in increased benefit costs. When asked what the numbers would be if teachers accepted the city’s offer while maintaining their current health plan, meaning they didn’t switch to the Health Savings Account, Avard wrote he hadn’t specifically worked those numbers, but estimated that plan changes in the aggregate would exceed the proposed pay raise by about six hundred thousand dollars, which, by my math is between five and six hundred dollars per teacher. We’ll have more on this during this morning’s show.
Manchester Fire Chief James Burkush and deputy chiefs Nick Campasano and Danny Goonan insist there wasn’t any funny business in the process to review the proposed ambulance contract bids; at least not from them. They confirmed that American Ambulance did not submit the April thirty letter from its parent company’s U S A President and CEO to the city as part of their bid packet and confirmed that they were responsible for its distribution to the committee. They said they obtained the letter because of questions raised by committee members and distributed it during a separate discussion on that matter. They also said they had no idea how the National President of the I A F F union received the information and why they believed it was presented by American Ambulance as part of their bid. Burkush was adamant that his recommendation in favor of current provider A M R was based on their clinical performance, available resources, and correction of the company’s billing issues and its newly negotiated provider agreement with Anthem Blue Cross. We’ll have more on that this morning.
Finally this morning, in case you’re wondering why Canal Street was shut down for several hours yesterday between Spring and Kidder streets, there was a dead person on the sidewalk. Police would not release the deceased’s name pending notification of next of kin. Foul play was not believed to be a factor in the death.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is just 30 seconds away.
