Did the Hooksett School Board act legally when deciding to cancel a forum with residents about its high school situation? At a previous meeting, the board established the now cancelled October twenty ninth forum. Only, instead of hashing out the details at the special meeting held this past Tuesday night, the board took several actions not on the special meeting agenda, like changing the forum to an informational session, cancelling the meeting on the twenty ninth and establishing a new one for November twenty fifth, just days before Thanksgiving, like nobody’s got anything better to do that week. The board’s actions raised howls of protest from vice chair David The Pariah Pearl and John The Elf Lyscars who pointed out that not only wasn’t any of that action on the agenda, but that it was a violation of the board’s policy which reads, and I quote Only business which is stated in the notice shall be transacted at the meeting. Well, according to an email obtained by Girard at Large from Board Chair Trisha The Gavel Korkosz, she wrote and I quote “I am calling a special meeting of the Hooksett School Board for October twenty second for the purpose of establishing the format of the of the Public Forum on October twenty ninth.” Well, none of what they did was in the notice and they did nothing that was, so were the actions legally taken? Hooksett taxpayers just might want to know, especially given they’ve now put their residents off for another month. We’ve linked to video of the meeting so you can see what fun you missed.
Add another school district to the ranks of those looking for ways out of the Common Core. The Londonderry School Board approved a plan submitted by Superintendent Nathan Greenberg to apply for a waiver to the Smarter Balanced Assessment test the State Board of Education has adopted in favor of its own testing scheme. The district would use different, already available national assessments starting with the ReadiStep in the eighth and ninth grades, the A C T in the tenth grade, the P S A T in the eleventh grade and the Accuplacer in the final year. The school board agenda with the proposed plan is uploaded with this newscast at Girard at Large dot com. Londonderry School Board agenda (see page 45)
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Girard at Large has discovered that an alderman and a school board member seeking reelection owe the city money as does a newcomer candidate. Ward 9 Alderman Barbara Shaw owes the city almost twenty one hundred dollars in back taxes and interest fees and more than two thousand fifty dollars in unpaid sewer charges and interest fees dating back to two thousand eight. Ward 6 School Board member Dan Bergeron owes the city over two grand in taxes and interest penalties. And Ward 4 School Board candidate Amy Bradley owes the city of Manchester almost sixteen hundred dollars in unpaid sewer charges and interest as well as nearly nineteen hundred dollars in taxes. In an interview, Shaw said she got into financial trouble a few years ago putting her daughters through college and helping them with their weddings. She’s worked her way out of a lot of debt she said, but it’s been slow and difficult. She hopes to have her back taxes paid by years end and that her mortgage company would pay off the sewer charges after the first of the year. In an email to Girard at Large, Bergeron said his decision to quit his job in two thousand eleven and reprise his role as a stay at home dad led to financial challenges. He said the return the investment of staying at home outweighed the quote inconvenience of financial challenges end quote and said now that he’s back to work, they’re trying to get caught up. Bradley did not return our request for comment, which is probably not a dumb thing given all the times she testified before the aldermanic and school boards demanding the city spend more money on schools. We’ve posted the city records with their delinquencies for your review. Bradley delinquent sewer charges, Bradley delinquent taxes, Bergeron delinquent taxes, Shaw delinquent sewer charges, Shaw delinquent taxes
On a related matter, we asked Shaw why she didn’t report the five hundred dollar contribution she received from the Manchester Professional Fire Fighters Association. She said on the day she filed her pre-primary finance report, September sixteenth, she sent one hundred dollars of it back so that she didn’t have to report it. Shaw says she’s received more contributions since the primary, though so she’ll now be reporting everything in her next filing.
Oh there’s so much more news this morning, but we’re out of time!
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is on the way.
