These news stories went over the airwaves on June 6th, 2013.
We start this morning with school news in Goffstown. Wendy Hastings will take the principal’s reins at the Mountain View Middle School. Hastings is currently the assistant Middle School principal in Londonderry. Her election to the post by Goffstown’s esteemed school board came after controversy surrounding her nomination. You may recall soon to be former Superintendent Stacy Buckley released her status as the sole finalist for the job before informing the school board that the nominating committee had failed to come up with additional candidates. Hastings has more than a decade of middle school experience and members of the seventeen member search committee and school board are hopeful she’ll be able to settle matters at the school which has been dogged by ongoing controversies that came to a head when Principal Jim Hunt was paid more than sixty thousand dollars to resign following reports of his failure to participate in a thirty five thousand dollar study commissioned to find out what was wrong in the school.
Meanwhile, Girard at Large has received information indicating that the Goffstown School Board may have seriously violated the state’s Right to Know Laws once again. On its May 20th meeting agenda, there was an item announcing the board quote will discuss information received by legal counsel in non-public end quote. We have been advised that in order for a public body to go into non-public to discuss an attorney’s legal advice that attorney needs to be present. There is no evidence in the minutes from that meeting to suggest that the attorney was in the room. Moreover, sources tell Girard at Large that the legal opinion had to do with Dunbarton’s desire for a phased transition that would allow some students to finish their schooling in Goffstown . You might recall the Goffstown School Board released the minutes of a similarly entered into non public session on the night before they were scheduled to be in court against a Dunbarton resident who filed a fifty page petition under the Right to Know Law to force them to cough up the goods. Our investigation will continue, of course. Will these people ever learn?
The Boys versus Girls voting in Hooksett continues as the Hooksett School Board remains deadlocked over who should fill the seat vacated by resigned school board member Mike Dubisz. Despite additional applications submitted by Hooksett residents, no candidate will satisfy both sides; might be because just about every applicant seems to have allegiances or aggression with one side or the other. Anyway, the board even deadlocked on holding a special election. Boys were for it. Girls were against it. The Town Council could get involved and fill the vacancy, but, before that can happen, the school board has to agree that it’s deadlocked…and they don’t. Folks, you just can’t make this stuff up.
The Merrimack Chamber of Commerce has announced that Pat McDermott of Public Service Company of New Hampshire will be the featured speaker at its Lunch and Learn Luncheon on Wednesday, June 12th. The topic will be a hot one: New Hampshire’s electric utility deregulation. The luncheon will be from eleven thirty to one at the facilities of Home and Hospice Care on Executive Park Drive. Visit MerrimackChamber.org for details.
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas officially begins his reelection campaign tonight with a Kick Off Event at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church. The fun begins at five thirty. Members of the public are invited to attend the event in which Gatsas is expected to outline his agenda for another term. Gatsas is expected to be opposed by Ward 12 Democratic Alderman Patrick Arnold.
On Monday, we heard from Goffstown Resident Jenn Hobbs (listen to that interview) about a dying 10-year-old girl with Cystic Fibrosis, who wasn’t eligible for an adult lung transplant list because of her age. Yesterday, US District Judge Michael Baylson intervened and ordered Sarah Murnaghan be added to the list because of the severity of her conditions. The ruling will be in effect until a June 14 hearing on her parent’s petition can decide the matter permanently.
That’s News from our own Back yard, Girard at Large is straight ahead!
