It appears that Aldermen Dowd and most of the rest of the Board of Aldermen for the City of Nashua think that the Nashua taxpayers have very deep pockets.
The City of Nashua residents must remember that the city received a total of $44,453,420 in ESSER funds from 2020-2022. That Aldermen Dowd states the ESSER funds were short is a total lie. It seems that the Nashua School District spent the money on other things.
A resident should also remember that ALL of this money only went to public schools, and none went to private/charter schools. Maybe some of the money should have gone to the private schools because they would have tracked the funds that were received accurately.
Currently, the Nashua School budget is $176,664,951, with school bonds totaling $133,011,500 for a grand total of $309,676,451. This is for the lowest enrollment in public schools and in educational scores in the last ten years. Maybe this is why the School District could not keep track of all the money they received.
Last week Aldermen Dowd gave an explanation on the ESSER funds that the City of Nashua received that was appalling. Aldermen Dowd told the board and the public that the city was short on ESSER funds by $4.5 million dollars. Aldermen Dowd said no problem, the School district spent the ESSER funds on other things however that is the school district problem and not the Nashua taxpayer problem.
School officials will just have to cut their spending down by $4.5 million dollars in other places. And whoever made this mistake needs to be fired now. A $4.5 million dollar mistake is no small matter, and someone needs to be held accountable.
Second, if a roofing company gave the City of Nashua a quote to do the two roofs, that is the figure that the Nashua taxpayers should pay. If the roofing company did not realize that there were already two roofs that needed to be removed and now wants to charge the Nashua taxpayers an additional $2 million to remove the old roofs, then maybe taxpayers should not be using them because it appears that they are NOT qualified.
Please stop being so free with the Nashua taxpayer’s money and start holding people accountable for their mistakes.
Nashua residents need to voice their opinions with Aldermen Dowd and other board members. Please send an email to them at boa@nashuanh.gov and tell them that the Nashua taxpayers are tired of paying for other people’s mistakes.
