Former District Four Executive Council Candidate Chuck Rolecek, also former owner of the CR Sparks and Hanover Street Chop House restaurants has had a change of mind and has decided he won’t run for governor. Turns out the Bedford resident may not, in fact, be a Bedford resident. An investigative report done by The Nashua Telegraph’s Kevin Landrigan discovered that Rolecek lists his home in South Carolina as his primary residence, which technically under the laws of both New Hampshire and South Carolina, makes him ineligible to vote in our state. If you legally can’t vote here, you can’t be governor. But wait, he did vote here as recently as two thousand twelve, the year he ran of Executive Council, despite declaring his South Carolina home his primary residence three years ago. According to Landrigan’s article, to which we’ve linked from this newscast at Girard At Large dot com, South Carolina law provides a whopping discount on property taxes on primary residences. Over three years, Rolecek, who paid just over thirty nine thousand dollars in South Carolina property taxes, avoided paying more than thirty three thousand due to the domicile discount. We’re thinking that declaring oneself a resident of South Carolina to cut the property taxes on your winter home by forty six percent isn’t a winning plank in one’s platform to be governor of New Hampshire. Oh My HEAD. Maybe all that work we’re doing to expose voter fraud is starting to penetrate. On a serious note, it remains to be see whether or not the N H Attorney General will investigate Rolecek for voter fraud given his declared domicile in another state.
The Hooksett School Board Elf John Lyscars (we can’t refer to him as the school board clerk because Trisha “The Gavel” Korkosz might think we’re representing him as acting on the board’s behalf) is encouraging residents who disapprove of the board’s action adopting a long term tuition contract with Pinkerton Academy, designating it as its high school of record and assigning the entire eighth grade class there for its Freshman year, to launch a petition drive and collect as many as one thousand signatures. Lyscars believes that if a citizen led petition drive can quickly show mass disapproval of the action, the board may ditch the contract it just approved and still have time to negotiate an agreement that would enable Pinkerton as an option for Hooksett students without the mandated attendance numbers he so vehemently opposes. Looks like he’s got a taker on the proposition. Hooksett resident Scott Barker has launched a “reverse the contract with Pinkerton Academy” petition. Don’t you worry, we’ve linked to it for your convenience. Lyscars has also established a Google group to disseminate information and discuss Hooksett school issues. It’s Hooksett dash help at google groups dot com if you’d like to join.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
As reported yesterday, Assistant Manchester Superintendent David Ryan, sent us the list of those teachers who worked on the creation of the Common Core aligned curriculum guides that were NOT adopted by the school board, a list of the teachers who worked on recommending Everyday Math to the district and finally provides the “final list” of those involved with the T-MAS development working on The Manchester Academic Standards. In cross referencing the lists along with the prior list of T-MAS participants, I noticed missing names. Upon closer inspection, I realized that what Ryan sent wasn’t the complete list of sixty working on the T-MAS writing teams, it was an attendance sheet from at least one of the days of the workshop unpacking standards led by Dr. Althea Sheaff, the retired Nashua Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction responsible for converting Nashua’s curriculum to Common Core. Nonetheless, using all the lists we’ve been sent, we’ve been able to determine that no fewer than twenty four of the educators working on The Manchester Academic Standards worked to develop the rejected Common Core aligned curriculum guides. Seven of them worked on the committee that brought us Everyday Math. It also appears as if two members of the fifteen member District Standards Coordinating Committee were part of the Common Core curriculum guide alignment process and others, like Judy Adams, are principals of schools like Bakersville which is sending home notices and posting on their school web site about the wonderful job they’re doing to implement the not adopted Common core in the district. Needless to say, Mr. Ryan will be receiving a follow up email this morning, who, by the way, did not respond to our inquiry about whether or not teachers publicly advocating for the Common Core national standards will be allowed to continue to be on the committee that’s supposed to be working on developing superior academic standards for Manchester. Seems they have a bit of a bias, no?
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ starts right now!
