Giving voters a voice by empowering elected school district officials to reclaim control over budgets and curriculum.
— Upcoming SDGA events —
A Virtual Happy Hour!
Raise a glass of holiday cheer with your SDGA friends on Zoom and talk about your favorite topics outside the structure of a meeting. This is an SDGA members-only event but spouses and significant others are welcome. Friday, January 29, 7:30 – 9:00 pm.
Zoom invitations to all our members will be sent on Jan. 28. Join us for some fun!
Webinar: How to Write a Right to Know Request
The President of Right to Know NH, David Saad, will conduct a webinar on how to make an effective Right to Know request. The law is straightforward but the inexperienced can stumble over pitfalls. Did you know, for instance, that the law does not require any public body to answer questions? You must ask for existing documents or your curiosity will go unsatisfied. Learn many more useful tips during this free webinar. Friday, January 22, 7:30 – 8:30 pm.
Registration is free but required in order to receive a Zoom invitation.
To register click here.
What Expunging the Blaine Amendment will Mean to Your School District
Erica Smith from the Institute for Justice will explain how eliminating the Blaine Amendment from NH’s Constitution will allow public school districts to tuition students to religious schools. Representative Glenn Cordelli, (a member of SDGA),is leading an initiative to amend the NH Constitution to expunge the Blaine Amendment. Friday, February 12, 7:00 to 8:00 pm.
Registration is free, but required in order to receive a Zoom invitation.
Webinar registration link will be available on our website soon.
Coming…….
In April we will be hosting a webinar for newly elected school board members. This will cover responsibilities and timelines, the importance of policies and familiarization with Education RSAs and Administrative Rules.
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SDGA Legislative Initiatives
We have initiated these bills to make budgets and collective bargaining much more transparent. We ask for your help in supporting them.
HB 348 Making Collective Bargaining Public
requiring public entities to negotiate collective agreements in public
HB 206 Public Notice of Collective Contracts
The language of this bill was serious mangled by the Office of Legislative Services and requires an immediate amendment to get back to its original intent of requiring 30 days public posting of a collective contract before it is signed by a public body.
HB 243 Relative to the form of municipal budgets
All municipal, district, and school administrative unit budgets shall use a full line item detail in industry-standard electronic spreadsheet format, which shall include all the budget lines used to comprise the complete budget.
HB 454 Relative to the requirement that certain governing bodies submit recommendations to the budget committee.
Duties of Governing Body and Other Officials. The governing bodies of municipalities adopting this subdivision, or of districts which are wholly within towns adopting this subdivision, shall review the statements submitted to them under RSA 32:4 and shall submit their own recommendations to the budget committee, together with all information necessary for the preparation of the annual budget, including each purpose for which an appropriation is sought and each item of anticipated revenue, at such [time] times and in such detail as the budget committee shall fix.
HB 415 Relative to municipal estimates of expenditures and revenues
32:4 Estimate of Expenditures and Revenues. All municipal officers, administrative officials, and department heads, including officers of such self-sustaining departments as water, sewer, and electric departments, shall prepare statements of estimated expenditures and revenues for the ensuing fiscal year, and shall submit such statements to their respective governing bodies, at such times and in such detail as the governing body may require, but no fewer than 30 days prior to the public hearing for its budget. The governing body shall publish the draft budget and revised versions, after making any updates to the budget, within 5 days. Budgets shall be published in full line item detail, and made available in CSV and PDF formats for easy viewing and use by common spreadsheet programs.
How We Need You to Help
Our bills are now assigned to committees who will conduct public hearings, though dates in January and February are still to be determined. We will need SDGA members to testify via Zoom at these public committee meetings or write letters of support for these bills. Comments are generally kept to three minutes and if we coordinate them in advance we can make quite a considered argument. The number of people who testify in support or in objection to bills does weigh considerably on the hearing committee members. Opponents to these bills will be out in force, please do not doubt that. Contact me to keep informed. I will also send out an email to the membership when hearing dates are known. Please help change history in NH. We can get this done!
Upcoming Board Meetings
February 6, 9 am – 11 am
Monthly SDGA Board meetings are over Zoom. Members and interested people Email me if you wish to attend.
Reminder……
Membership Fees Due on Jan. 1 here.
A lifetime membership is only $200!
Your organization is funded exclusively through membership fees, seminar receipts and fund raising activity. Thank you for your continuing support! (New members who joined in the last quarter of the previous year have their membership carried forward to the end of the next year.)
Articles and Websites of Interest
Nevada High School Student Sues Over Leftist ‘Indoctrination’
New Hampshire COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation for All Phases
How a Bill Becomes a Law, New Hampshire Almanac
https://www.nh.gov/almanac/bills.htm
NH DOE News
Edelblut, DeVos praise acceptance of charter school grant
The Fiscal Committee has approved a long sought after $46 million education innovation grant for public charter schools to support at-risk students.
Get Involved in SDGA
Help us with outreach: Are you involved in groups interested in school-related issues? Local GOP and taxpayer groups come to mind. Invite us to speak!
If you’re not already a member, and you want to support what you’re seeing and/or get involved, please join SDGA. Fill out an application on our web site! Dues are $20, which we’ll ask you for after we process your application.
Next time you renew, consider a NEW Lifetime membership for $200! Renew your yearly membership here.
Or make a donation! We run on a shoestring, and every little bit helps.
Members are encouraged to join the SDGA Facebook group to see events and announcements and to have discussions about them. The SDGA Facebook page shows our announcements only.
Warm best,
Donna Green
President, School District Governance Association
SDGAofNH@gmail.com
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Our mailing address is:
School District Governance Association of New HampshireP.O. Box 95
Grantham, New Hampshire 03753
