Monadnock School Taxpayers Association News

The teachers union opposed his effort to expand his class beyond 35 students.

Jaime Escalante, the brilliant public school teacher immortalized in the 1988 film, “Stand and Deliver,” died this week at the age of 79. With the help of a few dedicated colleagues at Garfield High in East Los Angeles, he shattered the myth that poor inner-city kids couldn’t handle advanced math. At the peak of its success, Garfield produced more students who passed Advanced Placement calculus than Beverly Hills High.

In any other field, his methods would have been widely copied. Instead, Escalante’s success was resented. And while the teachers union contract limited class sizes to 35, Escalante could not bring himself to turn students away, packing 50 or more into a room and still helping them to excel. This weakened the union’s bargaining position, so it complained.

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Sentinel Source
January 21, 2010
Most school boards are operating in pressure cookers, thanks to the poor economy and increasing requirements that schools account for the performance of their students, among other demands.

But nowhere does the pressure seem as intense as in the Monadnock Regional School District, where at a recent board meeting one member called another a “jerk.”

Actually, that’s par for the course at Monadnock’s school board, where rude behavior is commonplace. A year or so ago civility presented itself for a brief spell, like the eye of a storm, and then was gone.

The cause of that interlude of respectful and productive behavior was a videotaping project undertaken by students at Monadnock Community Connections School, a unit of the school system that has a nontraditional curriculum.

Said one teacher who witnessed the students’ videotaping of school board meetings, there was a distinct change in tone when the cameras were on: “It was like night and day.”

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December 8, 2009
Mark Steyn

As longtime readers know, the Demographic Deathwatch is not a novelty dance craze but a recurring feature of this column. But it’s not just for Europe, Russia, China, and Japan anymore! Some parts of America are acquiring demographic profiles that would qualify them for EU membership.

Take the Green Mountain State. As Howard Dean was fond of saying during his 2004 presidential campaign, “Vermont is the way America ought to be.”

If it is, we’re all done for. Its marquee brands are either Canadian-owned (Vermont Castings wood stoves) or European-owned (Ben & Jerry’s ice cream) and any non-foreign economic activity in the state long ago had any life regulated out of it.

But never mind all that. I ventured across the Connecticut River the other day and picked up the local paper, the Journal Opinion of Bradford, Vt.

And among the other front-page headlines (“Newbury Will Mail Town Reports”; “Upcoming Sand Pile Talk”) was a story on how local school districts were in merger talks. No underlying reason was immediately given for the suddenly pressing need to merge: It seemed to be accepted as a natural feature of life that you can’t do anything about. And then a gazillion paragraphs into the story, the reporter finally explained what was going on:

Throughout Vermont, student enrollment at public elementary and secondary schools is declining. According to figures from the state’s Department of Education, there were 104,559 students at those schools during the 1999–2000 school year. Last year, that figure was down to 92,572.

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The Monadnock School Board members, Administrators, Teachers, now are hiding behind the accreditation myth to get more money from taxpayers, by using scare tactics like ‘your child won’t get into college if the school is not accredited by NEASC (New England Association of Schools & Colleges).

It’s just a flat out lie by the tax and spenders.

Last April I visited Bellows Falls Union High School during school vacation because I thought BFUHS was on probation from NEASC. What I found out was BFUHS got rid of NESAC in the early 90s, and has never looked back. The principal, Chris Hodgdon, and Assistant Principal, Ryan Parkman, indicated the NEASC cost was too high, and saw no value in continuing the relationship. I also spoke with Jon Ratti, who retired last June 30th as Director of Guidance, after 35 years in education. He said the school board was concerned that not making AYP and not being accredited would negatively impact students applying for college. Mr. Ratti spoke with admissions officers at Dartmouth College, Middlebury, St. Michaels and the University of Vermont. All schools assured Mr. Ratti that they were not aware of schools not making AYP and the same was true for accreditation.

Nowhere in the application process to these colleges do they ask if the applicant’s school is accredited. Schools could get 15,000 applications, bottom line; the college evaluates the applicant or student, not the high school. It’s interesting to note that the highest SAT score ever recorded in Vermont, was a BFUHS student with no school accreditation.

Accreditation is a big money maker for NEASC and for the price charged will give your school district a good or bad report to help get more money from taxpayers. Just pay the annual fee. You will get a report full of school talk no one really understands. Common sense must enter the accreditation myth, and the good folks at BFUHS asked me the questions;

Q. Does your district financially support the schools?
A. Of course: the local tax burden of 2007/08 was $14,000,000.

Q. Do you receive monies from the State of New Hampshire?
A. Of course: 43% of our expenditures.

Q. Do you receive Federal money?
A. Of course: for Fed Food Service, Special Education, and grants including $10 million MRPESOC grant that was mismanaged and wasted by both SAU 38, Antioch College, Keene State and other partners.

Q. Is your school district approved and accredited by your state department of education?
A. Of course. It is no easy task to become a co-operative school system in N.H.

Q. So why does your school district need NEASC???
A. It doesn’t.

When there were eight separate school districts, NEASC was important to the small districts to help guide them with their small student populations and limited resources. In 1912 Vermont had 1400 one room school houses and NEASC was 27 years old. (Started in 1885). Those schools needed guidance, but then came larger school districts. Because of this growth the SAU (School Administration Units) were born and NEASC’s real value diminished, as it should have, with very expensive SAU management teams taking over.

The NEASC report is full of half truths, misinformation, and gold tinted wish lists from the School Board, Administration, Teachers, and every kind of committee you can think of. You have Teachers suing the District, District suing the Teachers, with the report from NEASC becoming a big bitch session between the factions, with one thing in mind! Get what we want by scaring the hell out of the voters, especially those parents with young children and students nearing college age. The scare tactics include huge new facility expenditures, bloated Teacher contracts, and benefits including Pension Plans that voters can no longer afford in any school district. When is a benefit not a benefit to the district anymore?

If NEASC is dictating everything necessary to run our school district, why should the district pay the SAU 38 management team $1,259,861 for high level management in the proposed budget? Where is the logic? Common sense would dictate NEASC or the SAU management team has to go. Being hostage to a Bedford, Ma. Accreditation Company for the largest employer in the school district is ludicrous.

Make no mistake; the SAU management team, the School Board and other factors (No Child Left Behind) are all to blame for the NEASC probation. But, where was NEASC over the last ten years? They are just as much to blame for the Curt Cardine Administration’s lack of progress, and NEASC has to take a big share of the problems mentioned in these self-serving reports.

So what to do? Start by telling the voters the truth about NEASC, without the shameful scare tactics. It just erodes the voters trust for the School Board and Administration even further then it is. It is now time for common sense about the school district’s problems.

Richard E. Bauries, President MSTA
124 Sawyers Crossing Rd
Swanzey, NH 03446

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January 30, 2009
Letter to the Sentinel
by Richard Bauries, President MSTA

Dear Sentinel:

William Felton writes Jan.10 that he wants voters to spend millions for renovations at the high school in order to satisfy the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and retain accreditation for Monadnock High School. At what cost in tax increases? He doesn’t say.

The economy is sinking fast; the recession is deepening. Some analysts are now speculating about depression. Unemployment is over 7% with some economists saying the actual number is closer to 14%. How many in our region will lose their job or business in the coming year? Mr. Felton and his cohorts on the school board and budget committee just handed Swanzey residents an almost $1,000 school tax increase; yet now he demands even more.

Felton terrorizes parents by indicating that without accreditation, the kids somehow won’t fare well educationally. Nonsense. Colleges are concerned with SAT scores, class rank and grades, not school accreditation. When Ms. Bennet from NEASC came to our high school last year, she was asked, out in the hallway, to name a college that required accreditation in order to gain entrance. She replied, “UCONN”, the University of Connecticut. The next day the Monadnock Schools Taxpayers Association spoke to the admissions people at UCONN who told us unequivocally that accreditation was not a factor in student acceptance, even in their medical or dental schools. When we mentioned home schooled students, the lady in admissions practically jumped through the phone with enthusiasm. It seems home schooled kids are highly sought after by UCONN. We also have a letter from the Bellows Falls school district in Vermont stating that colleges are not looking at accreditation for student admissions (see our web site at www.monadnocktaxpayers.org).

Felton is using accreditation as a club to beat parents into submission to his spending habits.

He wants “change and innovation in programs and a continuous upgrading and renewal of the physical facilities”. Only this, he claims, will give students a chance for a good education. What bull. Go to our webpage and read the news blog about Japanese public education where they have forty kids in a class and how some of the school buildings would be condemned by American standards. Yet, the Japanese students (and European, Chinese and Korean!) constantly outperform American students in academic subjects, particularly math and science.

Felton and NEASC are part of the educational-industrial complex, very similar to the military-industrial complex. Create a threat and warn that massive expenditures must be spent to save the imperiled entity – in this case public education at Monadnock.

There are eight people working on Ms. Bennet’s commission at NEASC. They service 655 schools at an average cost of $2,400 per school for each year of accreditation. That’s $1,572,000 a year and this is only the minimum. When they came to Monadnock, the cost was almost $15,000 with another $7,500 due if they were asked to review the final report. Minus some operating expenses, these eight people could be making a serious buck. Do you think for a moment this independent business, for that is exactly what NEASC is, will not tell the educrats in a district exactly what they want to hear in order to keep the money flowing?

This is not the time for new debt. Debt is what got us into this economic crisis. Let the School board trim the budget increase to offset the warrant article for facility upgrades. Taxpaying families are tired of always being the ones that must cut their budgets to stay afloat.

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January 23, 2009
by Richard Bauries

The Monadnock Region School Board, October 21st meeting was chastised by Anika Clark of the Sentinel and right on target; the School Board had it coming. The continuing back door and secret politics by certain board and Administration SAU 38 members will no longer be tolerated by the public or the Monadnock School’s Taxpayers Association (MSTA).

School Board member Karen Cota of Roxbury the Facilities Committee Chairperson for the past several years brought forth the motion both to establish and then fund a new school district position of Project Manager at a cost to the taxpayer of $76,300. which up to now has been a limited outside consulting position. This was done on a default budget that disallows any new financial contractual positions to the district. Ms. Cota created the new Project Manager position in light of her recommendation as Facilities Chairman with the co-operation of fellow committee member William Felton. She then put forth two multi-million dollar construction warrant articles, which will go to the voters in March, 2009. A $12 million warrant for renovations to the Middle/High School and a new $18 million Middle School. Ms. Cota was also not interested in having any public hearings on taxpayers funding the $30.6 million construction projects.

We now know that Karen Cota applied for the new Project Manager position herself, and did not resign her seat on the School Board until after it was brought forth publicly. Also to be noted, the School Board never made any announcement of this issue at its previous meeting even though several members were aware of the application of Ms. Cota. Nor did the Facilities Committee, which she chairs, mention it in the minutes of the meetings. More evidence that minutes are being sanitized by committee chairman and the administration, with the exception of the Finance Committee.

What is sad regarding the above factual information is that Ms. Cota secretly applied for the position herself, while a sitting board member, which is using her authority and position for personal financial gain. This abuse of public trust, known as “Ultra Vires”, (Latin for beyond powers) which would connect with “Pecuniary Benefit”, any advantage in the form of money or favors for economic gain.

Ms. Cota has mentioned publicly at different meetings, that she has no health care insurance, no retirement plan, and in fact could not pay her property taxes in full. However, abuse of her position on the School Board is not a justified manner to obtain compensation and benefits from the taxpayers of the district.

Ms. Cota resigned her position on the School Board only after it was brought forth publicly at the last School Board meeting (Oct. 21st) that she had applied for the Project Manager position. It was all hush-hush until then. The fact that Ms. Cota may be the least qualified for the position does not alter the fact that her credibility has been damaged, along with some members of the School Board and Administration.

Ms. Cota has had little respect or regard for RSA 91A, the Right to Know law and the Open Meeting Law during her tenure on the School Board and as Chairman of the Facilities Committee. In fact, during the October 16, 2008 Finance Committee meeting, she made comment that the public should not be allowed to ask so many questions. This is a very dangerous path for the School Board members to go down. If Ms. Cota is voted into the position in a default budget, with possible abuse of power for personal economic gain as a member of the Monadnock Regional School Board, it would be easy to assume the voters would look at this as a conflict of interest.

This is a most difficult situation for the MRSD, coming when many educators in the district feel that we have turned the corner with a positive attitude. The School Board decision on this matter will go a long way with their creditability among the voters.

Richard E. Bauries
President, MSTA
124 Sawyers Crossing Road
Swanzey, NH

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August 30, 2008
Keene Sentinel

The voters already had their say

To The Sentinel:

The Monadnock Regional School District will hold a special vote for a teachers contract on Sept. 9.

The March 11, warrant article for a teachers contract was defeated by the district voters.

The school board, administration and teachers union could have included a warrant article asking for a second vote if the teachers contract was not approved.

They chose not to do this and therefore the next district vote would be March 2009.

Instead, they choose to petition the court and ask for an emergency vote. This time, the voters had to rely on one judge to deem whether this new vote was indeed an emergency.

It is interesting to know that Senator Molly Kelly, and Governor Lynch, both Democrats, had an invitation from the Chairman of the school board to view the middle/high school without the full school board being aware of the visit.

Soon after, the district petitioned the court for an emergency vote.

The judge hearing such cases in Cheshire County comes from a liberal, activist Democratic law firm, and was appointed to the court by Governor Lynch in October 2007.

Questions come to mind. Why the semi-secret meeting at the school with no minutes recorded, and when the public asked questions about the visit, the school board refused any answers?

Why was the Republican state representative not invited?

And if it was an emergency, why did the court take from June 12 to July 14 to issue a ruling?

There were three interveners to this petition, Sullivan, Fitzwilliam and the Monadnock Schools Taxpayers Association (MSTA), all arguing against any emergency.

After the ruling, there were five motions of reconsideration, and injunctive relief based on legislative RSAs for notice requirements to the public.

The court choose to go forth with a special meeting stating only that there was an emergency.

The taxpayers association totally disagrees with the decision, but the court must be respected.

If you the voters believe that the vote on Sept. 9 is truly an emergency, consider what you are basing your decision on.

Could it be teachers attending class with Home Depot aprons on? Could it be the teachers intimidating students to have parents vote for a new contract or the teacher will be out of a job?

Perhaps it was the Friday sick out when 29 teachers refused to come to school.

Was it the posters the students were allowed to make during class time in support of teachers, and then encouraged and permitted to go outside and picket while teachers watched? It seems like it’s all about the teachers.

The school board tells you the new contract is different then the March 2008 teachers contract that voters did not approve.

Not so.

For starters, early retirement does not end. You the taxpayer are obligated until 2016 in funding it. The town of Sullivan has a pending litigation in Superior Court due to be heard the second week of September.

The town is challenging the legality of teachers early retirement, which has been going on since 2001. Five to seven teachers a year are allowed to receive up to $25,00 to stay home, away from school.

This all is funded for by you the taxpayer for seven years.

And you never were warned.

The school board and administration would like you to pass this new version of the teachers contract on Sept 9. That would mute the Sullivan court case and you the taxpayer are the loser.

As the wife of the president of the Monadnock Schools Taxpayers Association, I know that Mr. Bauries takes constant abuse regarding the issues when he and other association members take a stand. Most come from people remaining anonymous in their assaults. You may disagree with his position, but no one can question his facts. He does his homework and documents the information.

There is no emergency. Teachers are getting a paycheck.

They still get 90 percent of their health care paid for by you the taxpayer.

They get the summer off. And remember, this is the same union that refused to allow the district to change health care carriers, which would have saved you the taxpayer $850,000 a year.

At what point does the district March 2008 “no” vote count? You decide, as for me I stand by the recommendation of the taxpayers association in voting “no” on this contract.

PATRICIA BAURIES
Swanzey

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Dick Bauries from the Monadnock School Taxpayers Association will appear on WKBK 1290 AM from 10-11 AM this Saturday, June 21st to talk about educational issues.

Please visit WKBK’s Website for more information on how to tune in.

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