School Board Archives - Page 6 of 7

Op-Ed : Shame on the Nashua School Board – Changes Are Needed

May 20, 2019 Op-Ed

by Kevin Scully | Liberals love to talk about a world where there is no bullying, but the progressives on the Nashua Board of Education appear to disagree. What else would you call Heather Raymond’s bullying action against Doris Hohensee, a sitting school board member who has done no wrong? Board President Raymond issued a … Read more

Different Time But the Same Old Request – More Money

March 11, 2019

I found this in a stack of old Town Reports someone gave me years ago, page #32: The problem of education is a difficult one to solve in towns like this, where there are but few scholars in a district and a small amount of school money. We hope to see a law whereby smaller … Read more

Manchester Fool Committee Strikes Again

December 14, 2018

There is a cost for electing liberal political hacks to a school board, or committee, and a shining example of “hacknoxiousness” is sitting on the Manchester School Committee Board right now. Enter one – Ward 2 Committeeman David Scannell. Does this “ward” title mean mental ward? It looks like the standard, “Let’s Get Committeeman Rich … Read more

Students Walkout in Support of Teacher Fired for Not Using Transgender Pronoun

December 12, 2018 Steve MacDonald

It has been five days since we reported on Peter Vlaming. The Virginia teacher irked the social justice beast by choosing not to use a transgender students pronoun of choice. He didn’t use the wrong one. He didn’t use one at all. The school suspended and then fired him.

Who Violated the Law in Manchester, Mayor Craig, and Leaked a Confidential Letter to the Press?

November 29, 2018November 29, 2018 Steve MacDonald

Local New Hampshire media recently reported on a letter from a lawyer representing a student to Manchester School Board member Rich Girard. That confidential document was leaked to the press in violation of New Hampshire Right to Know law. The list of people who had access is short enough that Mayor Joyce Craig should be able … Read more

SDGA Improving Governance Seminar Series – What is your statutory Authority & Where does it comes from?

September 26, 2018August 31, 2018 Skip

Improving Governance Seminar Series Legal Basis: Fact or Fiction As a School Board or Budget Committee member, do you often wonder what your statutory authority is and where it comes from? How can you reconcile what your Superintendent tells you versus what the NH RSAs command you to do? Come join us for a discussion of … Read more

Metzler ‘School Board Choir’ Sings Praises, Hands Out Maximum Bonus!

September 26, 2018May 17, 2018 Steve MacDonald

The Earl of Metzler, Grand Vizier (SAU55), praise be upon him, is thus bequeathed an increase in his annual stipend and a cash reward for; keeping the ‘little people’ down through the prodigious use of taxpayer monies to finance acts of legal force against his detractors (or threat thereof); the intimidation of political opponents who might question his divine guidance; and by using all means at this disposal to thwart efforts at transparency during his rule.

Well, that’s what it should have said. Instead, we got this.

How Windham’s Transgender Policy Violates Your Rights

July 15, 2024March 9, 2018 Steve MacDonald

Skip Murphy explains how the Windham School Board’s new transgender bathroom policy includes language that could infringe on first amendment rights by compelling speech with threats of disciplinary action and how he is trying to pry more details from the board. Visit the original post for more ways to listen.

Windham School Board Gets Right To Know Request On Trans-Bathroom Policy

July 15, 2024February 23, 2018 Steve MacDonald

Skip Murphy explains his first (of perhaps several) Right to Know requests to a Windham School Board that has rammed through transgender bathroom rules without following district policy. Listen from the original blog post page here.

Respecting the People who Pay The Bills

July 15, 2024November 1, 2015 Steve MacDonald

Rich Girard is running for a seat on the Manchester School Board. We talk about transparency and right to know, partnering with parents, respecting the people who pay the bills, and campaigning in the age of social media.

Most Education Dollars go to Adults and not Children

July 15, 2024November 1, 2015 Steve MacDonald

We continue with School Board candidate Rich Girard on budgets, spending, direct to indirect labor costs, and how most of the tax-dollars in a given school budget are spent on the adults and not on the children.

Why Aren’t The Public and the School Board in The Loop?

July 15, 2024October 4, 2015 Steve MacDonald

ICYMI – Part two of our interview with Rich Girard, who is running for the Manchester Board of School committee. We talk about how good education policy only comes from ensuring that parents and school boards are not just involved but informed so they can be educated participants in the process.

Rich Girard -School Board Transparency

July 15, 2024September 18, 2015 Steve MacDonald

Humble host Rich Girard comes out from behind his microphone to get behind ours as we discuss Education issues, transparency from administrators and school boards, and his upcoming election for a seat on the Manchester Board of School Committee

GrokTALK! – September 12th, 2015

July 15, 2024September 12, 2015 Steve MacDonald

We are joined by Canadian Health Care refugee Shona Holmes, talk show host Rich Girard , and Max Abramson gives us a primer on bills up for a veto override vote this week in the NH legislature.

Superintendents v. School Boards

July 15, 2024April 20, 2015 Steve MacDonald

Jorge Mesa-Tejada delivers our education update on what an SAU is (School Administrative Unit) and how Superintendents–the administrative leaders of the administrative units–have seized powers reserved to the School Boards.

URGENT! HELP STOP COMMON CORE

September 26, 2018May 13, 2013 Steve MacDonald

From Doris Hohensee c/o Facebook URGENT! HELP STOP COMMON CORE Manchester Board of Education meets at 7pm this evening (Monday, May 13th) at City Hall. NH DoE Chief of State and Director of Instruction, Heather Gage, will be making an emergency presentation to the school board on Common Core. Remember how it was inappropriate for … Read more

Red Rover in Dover

September 26, 2018April 10, 2013 Steve MacDonald

In Norwegian, apparently, Røver means Pirate. I won’t hold fast to that definition. I just learned it on Wikipedia, which is about as reliable as a school board in Dover spending your tax dollars to pay lobbyists to push legislation you may not support. Which is what I mean by pirate. The Dover school board, like many similar cabals throughout the Granite State, spends your tax dollars on professional lobbyists to promote the “interests” of the “district” up in Concord over your own, though they will always insist these ideas have parity when they do not.

So follow the bouncing ball.

Schools, like any government agency, seek bigger budgets. Those budgets are paid for with local and state taxes. The folks who run the school–boards, committees, administrators, the unions and the teachers, want budgets to exapnd to protect their jobs and benefits. To that end they are funding or promoting the funding of other professionals, with your tax dollars, to go before those with taxing power, including the state Legislature, to support laws and policies that will give them more of your money, and further secure their monopoly on education.

Windham School Board Bans ‘Human Target’ Activities (aka – Dodgeball!)

September 26, 2018March 28, 2013 Steve MacDonald

Susan posted a link to the story here, but the first sentence from the Concord Monitor article was all I needed to see. The Windham School District has banned dodgeball and other “human target” activities over concerns about violence and bullying. That’s a very broad statement. Almost every action of government is a form of … Read more

Is My School Board Ready To Run On The NHSBA Agenda?

September 26, 2018October 10, 2012 Steve MacDonald

Irritating the Bureaucracy makes me smile. Irritating the lobbying arm of the bureaucracy that disguises itself as something else is even better. And that is what my friend Gary Krupp has done on his maiden voyage into the Blogosphere. (Welcome to the deep end of the pool.)

Gary gives us an update on the local effort at damage control by the pro-lobbyist faction in town; the New Hampshire School Board Association (NHSBA) was invited to perform for the school board, which like some corpulent monarch was adequately amused to continue offering them indulgences…it is not, after all, their money.

The School Board lapped it up. They threw a few softballs Mr. Comstock’s way, and then discussed the process for submitting resolutions of their own for the upcoming NHSBA delegate assembly.

Thank you sire, thank you…

Membership Has Its Rewards – Just Ignore The Part That Violates State Law

September 26, 2018October 1, 2012 Steve MacDonald

In what appears to be a “Head them off at the Pass” move by Merrimack School superintendent Marge Chiafery, tonight’s school board meeting includes a visit from…Ted Comstock, the executive director of the NH School Board’s Association (NHSBA), and Barrett Christina, a NHSBA staff attorney to discuss “NHSBA Membership Benefits” This conjugal visit from the … Read more