SAU 16 Exeter Regional Co-operative School District (ERCSD) Chair Helen Joyce “opened” the 06-15-2021 meeting, “…with a heartfelt statement…” Wrong, Joyce’s feigned a declaration that was meant to garner sympathy for the SAU, Superintendent, and the Co-op Board she oversees.
Gee, we thought the children were the real victims here.
Chair Joyce adamantly asserted, “We are not the enemy.” So, anyone expressing outrage over recent civil rights breaches perpetrated against children are considered combatants by Chair Joyce?
Joyce promised unanswered questions from the meetings would soon be available in writing.
Posted on the SAU 16 Home Page “CLICK HERE TO VIEW FAQ FROM 6/14 & 6/15 BOARD MEETINGS” (ending up here). Imagine our surprise that the FAQ contains no author accreditation ‘Someone’ interpreted meeting questions and anonymous answers appeared on the SAU16 website.
Q. When does the superintendent stand up and answer questions?
“A school board meeting is a meeting of the elected body to conduct school board business in public. ERCSB Policy BEDH outlines public input during a board meeting, and it is a time for members of the public to provide input and feedback to the school board. lt has been the customary practice for the board to only listen to information shared in order to be able to reflect upon, and request more information from the superintendent in order to address the issues at or prior to the next meeting…”.
Madam Chair, why did you not authorize the Superintendent to verbally answer reasonable questions from concerned constituents? Your very own ERCSB Policies Section BDD #5 from the SAU16 website clearly states:
“To deal in an ethical, honest, professional, and transparent manner with the…community.”
This contradicts your BEDH policy and is an encroachment of [Art. 8] of the NH Constitution:
All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them. Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted. The public also has a right to an orderly, lawful, and accountable government. Therefore, any individual taxpayer eligible to vote in the State, shall have standing to petition the Superior Court to declare whether the State or political subdivision in which the taxpayer resides has spent, or has approved spending, public funds in violation of a law, ordinance, or constitutional provision. In such a case, the taxpayer shall not have to demonstrate that his or her personal rights were impaired or prejudiced beyond his or her status as a taxpayer. However, this right shall not apply when the challenged governmental action is the subject of a judicial or administrative decision from which there is a right of appeal by statute or otherwise by the parties to that proceeding.
Many ERCSD ‘Board Policies’ directly usurp The Bill of Rights of the Constitution of New Hampshire, Part First (see above)
Also, from ERCSB Policy BAAA,
“As agents of the state, School Boards are required to implement state laws…The Board is an agent of the State and derives its authority from the New Hampshire Constitution”.
NO school board in New Hampshire is an agent of the state (merely a “subdivision of The State”). Let us repeat. NO school board in New Hampshire is an agent of the state. Boards and their elected members are agents of the people. Nowhere in [Art.] 8. is ‘The State’ mentioned!
ERCSB Policy BDB states:
“The Superintendent is the chief executive officer and an ex-officio member of the board”
Yet, the Q&A responds with:
“A school board meeting is facilitated by the school board chair for the school board members, of which the superintendent is not…”.
Which is it? The people elect School Board members to represent them. The Board is the employer, the Superintendent the employee. It is infuriating that board members, charged with being “open, accessible, accountable, and responsive” to the citizenry, are in fact Administration bootlickers. Is this why the Q&A author remains anonymous?
Q. When was DEIJ work added to the 2 Revolutions contract?
“2Revolutions began diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the 2020-2021 academic year.”
This curriculum horror was buried in the 2019-2020 budget two years ago and we are just finding out now? This is all intertwined with the Critical Race Theory/2Revolutions programming.
Q. Did each board approve the DEIJ position?
“The DEIJ position was added to the 2021-22 Exeter Region Cooperative School District budget during the budget development process. The Exeter Region Cooperative School Board approved their budget after the ERCSB Public Hearing on the Budget on January 5,2021 and it was moved to the warrant at the deliberative session on January 30, 2021. The final approval of the 2021-22 ERCSB budget was on March 9,2021.”
How come our board members never raised any of these issues warning us of this extremist garbage? How is it the board members are totally incapable of explaining anything in a budget and always acquiesce to some administration flunky? They were willing to deceive us again at the last deliberative session, and it worked until they got caught this past June!
Their budget is a burial ground concealing extremist curriculum, spending, and all sorts of little goodies waiting to be resurrected on the second Tuesday in March.
We will now act accordingly and demand the immediate firing of the superintendent. We also call for the resignations of Travis Thompson, Joint Board Chair, and Helen Joyce, Exeter Region Co-operative Board Chair. Both Thompson and Joyce chose to defend this morally and ethically challenged administration over the constituents from whom their powers are derived. Both have displayed a willful disregard for the oath of office. Oh, and Board members do not leave their individual right to speech at the door when the board meeting adjourns.
Make no mistake, what we are exposing is not happenstance and permeates the educational institutions throughout New Hampshire and America. We are the Live Free or Die State. We cherish our freedoms. We must take a stand to keep them. Failure is not an option.
Jim Berlo & Jim Johnson, We may be reached at: pierredanger@gmail.com
