Was training contract awarded to SERESC against G-Town policy?

Published September 20, 2012 at 6 PM

DID GOFFSTOWN SUPERINTENDENT STACY BUCKLEY AWARD A TRAINING CONTRACT TO SERESC, EMPLOYER OF SCHOOL BOARD VICE CHAIRMAN DIAN MCCARTHY, IN VIOLATION OF SCHOOL BOARD POLICY?

For several weeks, Girard at Large has attempted to obtain ANY information regarding the award of a contract to SERESC to “train” personnel at the Mountain View Middle School.  This activity came under scrutiny as SERESC was also bidding for a consulting contract to evaluate the disarray at MVMS.  As a result, Girard at Large submitted several Right to Know Requests under NH RSA 91-A.

Goffstown School Superintendent Stacy Buckley was not only uncooperative, she was also contradictory in virtually everything she provided in response to our inquiries.  You can see our correspondence here.

We have once again initiated a request for information in light of Buckley’s disclosure of some of the information we requested to the Goffstown School Board during its September 17, 2012 meeting.

Buckley has refused to provide any requested information stating the funding was obtained from the Hampton School District, via a grant from the state of New Hampshire.  While the law requires her to provide the requested information, she instead referred Girard at Large to Hampton to obtain the information.  Then, she provided it to the school board, which apparently failed to inquire why she didn’t follow their Bidding Requirement policy.

You will note from the posts we linked to above, she both said this training expense didn’t meet the threshold for the bid policy, then said it didn’t need to be bid because it came from the Hampton grant.  In response to yet another request for information, this one having to do with the consulting contract for Mountain View Middle School  found here (be sure to scroll down to her email dated September 6th) Buckley claimed the board had no policy, and there was not law, regarding the issuance of Requests for Proposal, which is just bizarre as the board certainly does have a policy and it references the law.

Girard at Large will continue to update you on this story and will post, as comments, any responses received from Superintendent Buckley.  In the meantime, we will continue to wonder just how much longer the elected members of the Goffstown School Board will allow their superintendent to flout the law and risk the consequences that may arise as a result.

Here is our request:

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Hampton Grant
From:
Date: Tue, September 18, 2012 1:49 pm
To: “Stacy Buckley”

Superintendent Buckley,

I was interested to see that, despite your alleged inability to provide the data I requested on the grant obtained by Hampton, you were able to provide at least some details regarding that $20,000 grant to the school board.  Now that you’ve shown you have specific data on that question, I’m writing to request, under RSA 91-A, that you disclose how much of that grant was provided to Goffstown as well as the series of events that led to the hiring of SERESC to provide the training.

RH Girard