On behalf of the students and teachers of the Sanborn Regional School
District, I am writing this letter to explain why a Special School District Meeting is warranted.
At the School Board meeting of April 2, I articulated that teachers are
frustrated, disappointed and discouraged and that education will suffer
because of it. Low morale, teacher unrest, and teacher turnover are logical consequences of that vote (cause and effect). Teachers and students both lose.
I also stated that the district cannot afford to lose new teachers. The
turnover rate has been too high in Sanborn and the denial of the teacher contract is only going to perpetuate that trend. Many teachers will be taking home significantly less money than they did this current year due to salaries remaining fixed while healthcare costs increase dramatically. Many families will be hit hard and this may very well create financial crises. Teachers are "regular people"- they have bills to pay, gas and oil tanks to fill, mortgages, children to support- just like everybody else.
There is also an issue specific to the high school where teachers do not perform "duties" because of the Block Scheduling practice and current language in the contract. Throughout negotiations, the Board cited this as a supervision and safety concern. A new contract would have rectified this situation but with its defeat, nothing changes.
Finally, I noted that the school districtąs deliberative session was
confusing and there was a substantial amount of misunderstanding. Some
people walked out of that meeting thinking that the tax rate was increasing by 26%. What ensued were rumors and misinformation resulting in misinformed voters going to the polls. The following public comments [paraphrased] from the School Board meeting of April 2, 2008 substantiate this claim.
One speaker referred to the thorough budget presentation given by the Board 3-4 years ago and asked that it be presented like that again to better inform the community. (Translation: The budget presentation this year was not thorough and the community could have been better informed.)
Another speaker admitted that she did not vote because she was sick but if she had, she would have voted against the budgets based on the tax rate increases in the brochure mailed by the Board that didnąt make sense to the community. She went on to say that had she been better informed she would have supported the professional staff contract. (Translation: The information mailed to residents was confusing and, consequently, the citizenry was not well-informed of the issues. If they had been, they may very well have supported the teacher contract.)
These are very telling words and compelling reasons to request a Special
Meeting from the Superior Court. I am certain that those people were not the only two voters in the Sanborn community that were confused. Give the community accurate information and all the facts and the opportunity to go back to the polls as well-informed voters.
Bruce Stern, M.Ed., President Sanborn Regional Education Association
To the Editor:
Support Charter School Funding
Charter Schools have proven themselves to be a cost effective, crucial
option to give all of our children the best possible education which is
vital for a productive and satisfying life. Charters provide the
flexibility to help those who have difficulty prospering in the standard, one size fits all public education system.
Since charters have proven they work, opponents of funding charter schools often conceal their motivation. One of the favorites this year goes along the lines of "Iąd love to support charters since they do such a good job.
But, the state is facing a fiscal crisis this year that we may not be able to save them".
It was widely reported last week that the state double counts funding for charter students by continuing to send money to their home districts for as long as three years after they enroll in a charter school. So, most or all of the funding needed to save the charters is available by simply addressing a bureaucratic lapse.
Please contact your state senator and tell him or her that you expect them save our charter schools from closing by voting for charter school funding. Let them know you anticipate they will convince their fellow senators to support charter school funding. Tell them you are not buying the disingenuous excuses and they need to do the right thing for our students.
Mark Sykas Stratham
To the Editor:
Thank you foster parents! May is your month - Foster Care Month!
It’s a time for the citizens of our state to be reminded of the good work foster parents do "24/7" for children in need of temporary, or possibly permanent homes. These families come forward and put the needs of a child ahead of their desire to expand their family - permanently. They work with DCYF to try to re-unify the child with his or her parents, if at all possible. The foster-adoptive parent training helps them overcome any misgivings that might occur to them about working with the child’s parents. They learn to focus on the needs of the child so that, if it is decided that the child is to return to the family, it can be a smooth transition. If the child cannot return home, the foster parents will provide a permanent home for him or her.
Become one of our hard working foster families! To find out how, call your local Salem DCYF foster care worker at 1-800-852-7492.
Jan Feuer, Intake Specialist NH Foster & Adoptive Parent Association Concord
To the Editor:
Your Tax Rebate Check
A Manchester radio anchor complains that her tax rebate will simply go to pay pre-existing bills. This ignorance shows it's time for another less on the fact that any dollar can take the place of any other dollar. She would have had to pay those bills anyway, by cutting back in other areas. Now, she won't cut back; using the check to pay old bills frees up that money to be spent in new areas. Even putting the check in the bank lets it be withdrawn and spent by others.
Some people say the checks will just go to buy gas or heating fuel at
inflated prices. Again, it doesn't matter. A price increase in one thing makes us cut back elsewhere, unless everyone gets a rebate check. High gas prices aren't fun, but they aren't inflation, since the prices of other things should fall. Inflation is an increase in prices in general, and its only cause is the government printing more money.
So everyone gets a check, no matter whether they produce new things to buy. (In fact, the most productive get no check. Republicans still refuse to stand with the self-reliant.) No matter what you do with your check, you will help bid up the price of everything. And you may have done so before the checks arrived, because you were completely sure that your spending would be covered. So some of the inflation has already occurred.
Your rebate check is not just useless because it's eaten up by higher
prices; it helped cause the higher prices. Universal, unearned payments that reduce the value of each dollar will increase your power to spend dollars, but President Bush's claim, in his recent radio address, that they will "increase your purchasing power" is idiotic.
A matching sucker test is Hillary Clinton's call to cancel the gas tax for the summer, "paid for" by a tax on oil companies, which of course will be added to the price at the pump. She will replace a gas tax by a hidden gas tax and claim she is for the little guy and against Big Oil, with two changes that exactly cancel one another. Except that the tax holiday is temporary, but the new tax is permanent. And the program will require a larger hackarama of enforcers and rule makers, all dependent for their jobs on Hillary.
Being taken for a fool by a Democrat rather than Republican is not "voting for change."
