UPDATE before publishing: While it seems that Superintendent Steve Tucker was piously wearing a mask during tonite’s Laconia School Board meeting (according to a caller tonite after said meeting), I can tell you that he was MASKLESS while I was at the SAU30 office today. Hypocrisy much, Super Steve?
He said during the meeting that his family now has had COVID 3 times. Well, then he exposed the secretary, Regina, a female visitor to his office behind a closed door, and me to COVID. Nice advance planning, dude! Now, back to my original post.
Ayup, sure are to that title question, methinks! That post, “So Are Laconia Chair Aaron Hayward and Superintendent Steve Tucker Making Jackasses of Themselves?“, has gotten a lot of play lately and ended up back on the “Hot On The Grok” list of our top posts. In it, it became clear that shady things were afoot in the Laconia School District (reformatted, emphasis mine here):
A letter was sent to the Laconia School Board from a number of anonymous District employees. NH State Rep and Laconia School Board member Dawn Johnson tried to read it into the minutes of tonight’s meetings. I’ve been told that she was shut down almost immediately. Shut down under the rubric that it was a “Personnel matter” and that if she didn’t stop, she’d be thrown out.
It seems that Superintendent Steve Tucker is under investigation for several activities.
Good – he’s not much more than that 4 letter Yiddish word that describes a male member (see how I just sidestepped Rule #1 there?) from his time in the Gilford School System. Glad to see that in failing upward, he may well fail downward twice as fast and twice as hard. Good and hard, it seems.
It seems that both politically inept bozos, Hayward and Tucker, decided to use their “Positions of Power” and are acting out of a sense of entitlement over the District and are conducting a “special military operation” like that other authoritarian guy and guessing which of their underlings need to be purged. I’ve been getting a number of emails/calls from those being targeted with information. The problem is for these two chuckleheads is that they’ve now, in their pique of hubris, fired a very popular Principal, and I’ve heard that a small army of angry parents (and some LSD staff) are descending upon the School Board Meeting that started an hour or so ago. To the point that Superintendent Steve Tucker and Chair Aaron Hayward moved the meeting from the Laconia High School auditorium to a small meeting room at the SAU30 office building.
It’s what those who know they are in trouble do – make it impossible for those that actually own the District (parents, voters) to give them pieces of their minds. This is the mark of those who are either scared stiff or hold said parents and voters in a dismissive attitude. Keep it up so long and heads will roll.
Earlier today, I went to the SAU30 offices to pick up the Responsive Records stemming from an RSA 91:A demand by a John Worthington who filed it. Now, that is NOT a pseudonym for me. You, loyal readers, know that I don’t do that as I don’t care what “they” (re: anyone) think. However, there are those that do and I was called (Caller ID: Restricted to protect his privacy) by Mr. Worthington and he asked if I could do that. Having nothing else scheduled for today and it was local (next town over), I agreed. It was an interesting time. I wargamed things out before arrival and the SAU 30 did not disappoint.
After being buzzed in, I announced myself to Regina, the secretary/ receptionist who I was and why I was there (“to pick up the Responsive Records resulting from Mr. Worthington’s Right To Know”). She snapped back “You can’t take them! But you can look at them her,e. I said thanks, noting the ‘tude, and said that I’d examine them and make some copies using my phone.
She snapped back “You’re not allowed to make copies”. Well, enough of that and I said that I most certainly will – NH RSA 91:A allows me to do that. She gave me an hrumph and started to look it up -I suppressed a smile (or was that a smirk?) knowing that I had much more experience than she in this area.
I also expected, and found, a stack of pages, tightly packed and two-sided printed – exactly what I thought I’d see – the old “Put in 10 pounds of chaff in with the quarter pound of ‘good’ stuff. Once again, with the hubris of someone who believes they are untouchable and have a firm grasp of a compliant School Board.
Sidenote: WHEN are School Boards going to realize that THEY are in charge of the DISTRICT and don’t answer to Superintendents or other staff? When did School Boards go all limp and supine? Oh yeah, the NH School Board Association and its “grooming” of new SB members (e.g., “TRUST your Supers”).
So I went out to the truck, grabbed my portable high speed document scanner (about 1 second for a double sided page) and started running through them all. “THEY” were not amused.
I do think that Mr. Worthington is going to have a fruitful discussion with his lawyer when they review the contents – mostly from the sheer number of totally redacted emails – pages upon pages upon pages. Never a good look and I wasn’t given a sheet explaining what emails were being redacted AND WHY, leaving the question of whether or not NH RSA 91-A:4 exceptions were followed correctly or if the redactions were done to hide embarrassing or illegal actions? From that list:
(c) A public body or agency denying, in whole or part, inspection or copying of any record shall provide a written statement of the specific exemption authorizing the withholding of the record and a brief explanation of how the exemption applies to the record withheld.
Superintendent Steve Tucker did NOT supply any explanation as required by law. The Laconia School Board should take notice AND if Super Steve was in charge:
- Did the Board vote to allow him to expend those funds to have the legal experts do the redactions? Did they even KNOW he did this?
- And will the Board go after the law firm, if engaged, that failed to give such paper work to Super Steve?
After all, it is the SCHOOL BOARD members whose butts are on the legal block – they are responsible for the actions of their subordinates.
After all, it’s not always the crime that’s the bad thing – it’s the cover up afterwards that’s the main issue. And given that it is common knowledge that Superintendent Steve Tucker was under investigation for creating a hostile work environment, that could be a problem, in my estimation if true.
Anyways, I “chunked up” all those pages into roughly 50 or so pages for each “chunk”. So if you, in reading all these PDFs, see an email that seemingly stops in mid-sentence, just open up the next PDF. You’ll get as infuriated as I think Mr. Worthington will be.
Note: ignore the date/timestamps on the files from an absolute time basis – depend on the time differentials/last 4 digits of the file names for the correct order. I messed up setting the date time stamps. Here’s the zip file for all 35 PDF files: Laconia SAU30 RTK responsive emails
Here’s just the first PDF in that zip file:
Laconia School District – emails Number 1
And I’m getting MORE information as well – I’m being told to expect screenshots, copied documents, pictures, and even a video or two that will be coming my way.
Also, I took a few calls while typing this post from people who either were at the School Board meeting tonite or watched the livestream. If Tucker and company thought that they were putting oil over the choppy seas to calm down the rubes, I think they’ll find that someone brought a lighter to their party.
