Two quick disclaimers before diving into this post: First, this is a modified version of my comment to the board on Oct.1. I addressed them publicly and in person, so this is not some keyboard warrior controversy.
Second, some school board members think pointing out bad behavior is worse than the bad behavior itself, so let me be clear: This has nothing to do with politics or the school budget. It has everything to do with expecting our elected board members to uphold the spirit and the letter of the law as they represent us.
•••
There’s a built-in level of trust in local government. While we all share a common frustration with the nonsense that goes on at the state and national levels, surely our elected neighbors aren’t acting like that.
Regardless of our disagreements, even heated ones, there’s an expectation that we’re all playing by the same set of rules to make our communities better.
But a couple of weeks ago we learned of some questionable behavior by the school board during Deliberative, and in the months since.
Now, I’m not a lawyer. I’m just another taxpayer trying to raise a family and earn a living. I don’t know every state law by heart.
Maybe our board members didn’t break the law, but they certainly broke faith.
Here’s what we definitively know:
Documents provided by the school district show that before and during Deliberative, four board members and the superintendent secretly texted about how to defeat a citizen’s petition warrant article by raising the proposed tax cap from 2.5% to at least 25%. The wishes of three other board members were being passed along into this thread, a technique called sequential communications. That’s 7 of 9 members, more than the 5 needed to legally form a quorum. (RSA 91-A)
Board Vice-Chair Mark Sherwood then texted Chris Tardif directly about when to call the question on the floor. The text threads continue, but Mr. Sherwood chose not to provide those in the right-to-know request. (To show I’m not “cherry picking” certain text messages, I’ve attached all of them, unedited, to this post. I’ll also include a link to download the entire packet from the school district so you can review it and decide for yourself.)
You can be against a tax cap. That’s fine. Board members have every right to vote and publicly discuss warrant articles. But you can’t act like this. You can’t be so desperate to prevent citizens from restraining their tax increases that you’re willing to break faith with the entire process we all depend on for trustworthy, citizen-led outcomes.
For the past 8 months, Mr. Sherwood has repeatedly claimed he was just answering questions for his constituents, but his own text messages prove him wrong.
Two weeks ago, when this was brought up, board chair Katie Knutsen cut the video feed and went into recess even though two members had called a point of order. Board member Jack Sapia, who now claims this was all perfectly fine, correctly objected, saying, “You can’t do that.” and “I called a point of order.”
During the off-camera recess, people in attendance say she also demanded that someone stop recording on their cell phone. In doing all of this, she violated a slew of rules on how public meetings should run. (Refer to Robert’s Rules of Order §9:30-36, §20:1-8, §23:1-7, §47:7)
In response to this information going public, Atkinson board member Jack Sapia thought the best solution would be to create a website that publicly lists people making Right-to-Know requests. It’s an obvious ploy to discourage people from asking for information they have every legal right to, and that they are already paying for.
We’ve gone from an isolated incident to a pattern of rogue behavior.
Again, maybe the exact letter of the law wasn’t violated, but is that the standard we want to set? Is the board’s position that they can bend the rules however they want as long as it doesn’t become blatantly illegal? Is the board’s example to our community that if you make a mistake, the correct solution is to lie and deny and then break even more rules to cover it up?
This is frustrating and tiring. Not only are we forced to work more and more to pay our tax bills, but we also have to spend our ever-shrinking free time making sure the board isn’t betraying the public’s trust.
We all make mistakes. Perfection isn’t required to be a school board member. But integrity and a commitment to a fair, open process should be.
•••
To be as transparent as possible, I’m including a link for anyone who would like to review this information. It includes the original RTK request and the FULL packet the school district provided. It also includes other resources, including a link to RSA 91-A (the legal definition of a public meeting), a full breakdown of the cited Robert’s Rules violations, and links to the school board meetings with timestamps.
Link: [https://www.dropbox.com/…/ANA7UCqE54B4zLqw1pwvEEA…](https://www.dropbox.com/…/ANA7UCqE54B4zLqw1pwvEEA…)
Authors’ and Speakers’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers.
Disagree, agree, Got Something to say? We Want to Hear It. Comment or submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
