The New Hampshire School Boards Association (NHSBA), the notorious creator of numerous combative and corrosive anti-parent policies often adopted by school districts across New Hampshire, recently held a presentation.
To summarize, it is the board’s position (not so much policy) that school board members abrogate their First Amendment Rights so that parents and taxpayers don’t presume their speech represents that of their local school board.
Matt Pappas, who is the school board chairman and the president of the state’s School Board Association, used a 12-minute power-point presentation to inform school board members how to comport themselves while members of the school board.
Tops on the list was that members should never post things on Facebook or Instagram, or any other social media platforms having to do with school board matters.
I get it, but I’m on several boards, and no one assumes that what I write here has anything to do with them or their stance. Anonymous Republican party Insiders did once, long ago, write to my boss to try and get me fired for correctly calling Jennifer Horn a RINO and an ideological risk, bad for the party, and that she should never be allowed to serve as State party Chairman. The company President just said, ” Be careful,” and that was the end of it on my side. I shared the letter on ‘Grok and who I thought sent it, and the game was afoot.
They learned, as the NH Dems had already, that they couldn’t intimidate me. It simply invites more unwanted attention.
As for JHo, she was a terrible state party chair, proved us right more times than we can count, and eventually (inevitably) got tied up with the globalist stooges at the Lincoln Project, and finally came out of the closet and switched to the Democratic Party.
No apology letter was ever sent or expected. You were right, more right than any of “us,” obviously, but the RINO/Establishment never has to say they are sorry unless it is to Democrats, and I’ve wandered off on a tangent.
The NHSBA is essentially a lobbying organization whose primary function is to work against parents, students, and learning. You can read our extensive archive for more specifics, but Policy JBAB is a recent failure. Adopted after another one of those conferences and forced on New Hampshire schools and classrooms, it injected the transgender agenda into our school bathrooms and lawsuits into the laps of local school boards.
And now School Board members are being told to stay off social media.
“Keep school board stuff off social media,” he said. “We are not district spokespeople.”
He also told members how to comport themselves during public comment. “Listen to the public and show we care,” he said. “But there’s no back and forth.”Pappas also cautioned members that when any of them comment on social media, the public perceives them as a spokesperson for the entire panel.
“When people see us post they think we are speaking for the board,” he said. “When we address issues on social media we are seen through the lens as a school board member, not as an observer or an individual.”
Show we care? As Skip likes to say, stone-faced Moa statues are more like it. He’s spent more time in front of his local school board than almost anyone I know, except Ann Marie Banfield, who still writes here. Care is certainly not the message they seem to be receiving. And the NHSBA’s message to school boards is to be a Mao statue online.
Again, it is easy for people to misunderstand, especially if they are letting boys pee next to your daughters or play on their sports teams. The grooming is a problem, the cost per student is a problem, the often below-average at best achievement scores are a problem, the teachers’ unions, and all of it.
I think self-loathing is a prerequisite for a multi-term school board candidate, either that or they are narcissistic, Machiavellian psychopaths looking to impose their will on everyone and everything, or like kowtowing to them (School Superintendents come to mind, here).
You will give people the wrong impression, but I don’t think you should take the NHSBAs advice, ever, including now. Even if I disagree with you on everything, you have a right to your own opinion and to express it on any issue, anywhere, at any time. My advice, assuming you are the sort of person who takes advice, pin something to the top of your feed that makes this clear. My opinions are my own and blah blah blah blah.
“I would strongly caution against anything that may chill free speech,” said Lisa Carlberg of Ward 4.
Others chimed in, saying the community is looking for more communication and transparency, not less.
You’ll have to figure that out in your respective districts, but the first thing you should stop doing is paying dues to the NHSBA. You can get much better-balanced advice from AI, assuming you provide the right prompts. For free. And it will invite you to keep speaking.
