Saga of the "tapes" continues

What does it say about those elected officials that are so concerned with information being available to the public, that they have to discuss ways to destroy the recorded minutes from public meetings, so that no one can question or provide positive proof that the written record from these public meetings is incomplete, inaccurate and is basically someone's version of what took place. Without checks and balances, there is no democracy.

*taken from recent BOS meeting minutes*

On April 9, 2003 the BOS voted to keep tapes of public meetings for 90 days. On October 10, 2007 the subject came up again and Chairman Tedford stated that he would like to discuss how long the tapes and notes are kept at a later meeting, which after researching we do not believe was readdressed. The State Statute makes clear that tape recordings of meeting minutes only need to be kept until written record is approved at the meeting. As soon as the minutes are approved, the tapes can either be reused or disposed. Chairman Tedford thinks it is only necessary to keep the tape until the minutes of that meeting are approved by the Board because once approved they are the official record of the meeting. Selectman Fraser disagrees and thinks it is useful to keep the tapes in case someone needs to reference something directly from a tape. When Selectman Fraser was the Town’s secretary she kept years of tapes in a box. Selectman Ruth thinks someone has requested the copy of a tape only two times since he’s been a selectman. Selectman Fraser believes there has only been one occurrence while she was secretary. Selectman Fraser would like the tapes kept at least until the official minutes have been posted, in case any one wants a copy of the tape. Selectman Whippie makes a motion to continue and/or restart keeping the tapes for 90 days and then destroy or reuse the tapes. Selectman Berthiaume seconds the motion and it passes 4-1. Chairman Tedford says it is the responsibility of the Board to review the minutes and approve them. The Board members all agree.

The Planning Board had this same conversation several months ago when it became evident to Margaret Sharra that we were gathering evidence from these tapes to use in our lawsuit against the board in the Van Dyke matter. Since several audio tapes of past meetings that were requested under the "Right To Know" law have somehow mysteriously disappeared from the Planning Board office, containing important information in regards to the current lawsuit before the Superior Court, we can only wonder what happened to them and who's responsible for their disappearance.

It would seem that since several of us have been requesting these tapes of meeting minutes for the past couple of years , we have ruffled the feathers of those who do not wish to have their word questioned and are just expected to believe whatever we are told. Meeting minutes by the way are not verbatim, they are a condensed version of the events of that meeting and from our own comparisons of written and the actual taped accounts, much information is either omitted or written in a manner to suggest a completely different meaning than what was intended. Therefore we contend that these taped meeting minutes are an important record of the events and should be saved, if not for any other reason, than to provide an accurate and detailed account of what transpired at a public meeting. As stated in the minutes above by BOS member Fraser, these tapes can easily be stored in a box for years to be referenced if needed to defend the town in a lawsuit as well as provide evidence of wrong doing if such is the case. Why the big rush to destroy them?

The Big Picture

This article was published a few years back; but hits the nail right on
the head in regards to the problems we all face today. We all agree
that the education of all of New Hampshire's children is paramount to
their future and to the future of New Hampshire; however the system
is broken and has been for some time.



Education Funding Editorial



An enormous transfer of wealth has taken place in New Hampshire over the past 5 years, coming from the pockets of home owners into the coffers of the Education Establishment.

Five years ago the New Hampshire Education Monopoly spent in total $1.3 billion. In the year ending June 2003 they spent over $2.0 billion, an increase of 43% in 5 years. During the same time enrollment has gone up 5%.

This increase of public school spending comes largely from those who pay local real estate taxes. This unprecedented transfer of wealth has impoverished our senior citizens and has drained the earnings of all working families who are homeowners. If this spending spiral continues at the same rate for the next five years a large majority of New Hampshire citizens are going to have great difficulty paying their real estate taxes. We do have a school funding problem but that problem is dwarfed by the spending problem of our government schools.

It is the relentless spending increases that have created the funding problem.

What we have is a serious management problem and unless the management problem is addressed the funding problem will never go away. Could it be that some school superintendents are unqualified to run a multimillion dollar organization? In what other organization would the board of directors not dismiss the manager who runs up his cost of product as rapidly as many of our school superintendents have run up their spending per pupil over the past five years.

When one asks how is it that the non public schools can do a better job for less than half the price? We get whining and excuses rather than solutions. The excuses won’t halt the rise in my real estate taxes. One would almost have to conclude that a clever superintendent has purposely cried wolf, or “we have a funding problem”, in order to divert the attention of his local school board and taxpayers from his management weaknesses and spending extravagances. Even if the exaggerated spending of our government schools had produced good academic results people could not afford the continued drain on their on their savings and earnings from ever higher real estate taxes.

As the season of town meetings and warrant articles approach, homeowners feeling the heavy burden of their real estate taxes must stand up and tell their school superintendents that unless this spending spiral is halted they will be replaced.

by State Representative David Scott of Durham; published March 14th, 2004

—


submitted by email

Attitude Reflects Leadership

Submitted by e-mail

RE: Winchester/Keene school,

What’s up now, the blame game? We should take from Coach Knute
Rockne's example when he said; “When the going gets tough, the
tough get going” At some point you have to look at yourself and
say, am I part of the problem.”
You just can’t blame the Winchester Kids for low-test scores.
Nobody wants to be a failure, especially the kids. Does
Winchester need to spend more money on education? I don’t think
the issue is more than money being spent, just the sensible use
of money used to make the best impact. I do believe that some
students may not be fully ready to go to Keene High School(KHS),
but not just from one town. Could it be the lack of common course
of studies the issue? Or is it low expectations from parents,
educators and the community.

If a kid is told “you’re a Winchester kid your stupid”, how are
they going to start to feel? Stupid right. If you tell most of
the 8th grade class trying to set the fall schedule that they
can’t take algebra 1, that they have to take pre-algebra, which
would tell me the kids aren’t getting the proper foundation. This
is a problem in many communities, and the same holds true for other
required classes as well. When teachers at KHS say, ”Oh he/she is
a Winchester kid.” How will they feel? I actually heard one KHS
teacher/coach say he wishes the Winchester kids would leave KHS.
I then told that teacher I’m from Winchester and I am offended by
his/her comments. If (s)he was so out spoken as to tell me his pre-
judices, what is his/her attitude toward Winchester students that
step into his/her class? How are they going to excel in the 11th
grade NECAP tests (New England Common Assessment Program)? They
can’t; because they’re a year behind, not because they are stupid.
Why,doesn’t Winchester teach the same program as the Keene Middle
School and why wasn’t this issue addressed five years ago? Shoving
these kids out, or into “alternative programs” is not the answer
either.

We need to take a hard look at how we educate our children, and
keep to the basics that help our kids to excel. These kids have a
whole future ahead of them, are we creating a whole new generation
of needy citizens?

I don’t know why there hasn’t been more communications between
Keene and Winchester School Boards and SAU29 and 38 teams. If you
want kids to fail keep doing what you are doing. If you want the
kids tosucceed then you have to look at yourself.

Start by demanding more from the students from the beginning, from
kindergarten to graduation. Lessen the importance of social edu-
cation and put more emphasis on the basics. Spelling, English,
writing, math, social studies and yes gym. Expect that the 8th
grade curriculum to end with Algebra-1 and pre-algebra at least,
and seniors calculus. This goes the same for all other subjects.
If you believe in the kids they will perform to exceed everyone’s
expectations IEP (Individual Educational Program) or not. I saw a
mirror on the back of a front door with the caption “You are
looking at the next Eagle Scout.” Did they all get Eagle no, but
24% of that Troop got Eagle, the national average is less than 2%!
Why do these kids succeed where others fail? The scoutmaster
believed in them and no that troop was not an Eagle Mill! The same
holds true with team sports. Look at the ’67 Red Sox, 9th place in
’66, and pennant winners in ’67, why? They believed!! The 1980 USA
Olympic Hockey team, you figure that one out for yourself. There
are many stories of people succeeding where others haven’t, many
times because someone believed in them.

How did a math teacher from Garfield High School in East Los
Angeles get 18 of 18 high school seniors to pass the AP Calculus
exam? The testing service thought they all cheated. Inner city
Hispanics; must have cheated right? The logic and mistakes were
the same. How about the same teacher teaching the same method to
18 students! The students retook the exam under even higher
scrutiny. All passed again. Why? The teacher believed in them
event hough the rest of the faculty thought he was setting the
kids up for failure. In years since then that high school has had
over 150 students pass the AP Calculus exam in the SAME YEAR.

The same holds true in school and in sports. You reap what you
sow. Everyone has to work harder and stop the blame game. Then use
best methods for the rest of the school. Then you will have
“Reached for Excellence”. Try it; it just might work not only in
school but in the workplace too. For further reading, (don’t know
if they are still in print but here goes) “In search of Excellence”
by Peters and Waterman, and “Quality is Free” by Phillip Crosby.
The bottom line is leadership from the top down, and back up to the
top.Everyone has an impact on success. Remember attitude reflects
leadership. I didn’t see any leadership from the Keene School Board
in the 18th February ’09 article in the Sentinel.


Denis Murphy
292 A Richmond Road
Winchester, NH
762-6115

dvm2nd@myfairpoint.net
dvm2nd@vermontel.net

I am running for the Winchester School Board

A drag on test scores? Keene board cites Winchester students

In an eye opening article in the Wednesday edition of the Keene Sentinel, the proficiency of the students being taught at our school has been brought to light in a very unflattering manner:

Winchester Students Are Far Behind

Who's responsible for the test results of juniors at Keene High School, is it the principal and his staff or the staff at the five schoolswho send students to Keene High? Keene officials agree more work has to be done at the high school; but Tuesday night, they saw graph after graph, showing 11th - graders from other towns vastly outperforming their peers from Winchester.
Of the 50 Winchester students who took the New England Common Assessment Program test at Keene High School this fall, 60 percent failed the test! If they are that far behind when they are juniors, it stands to reason they are already well behind when they get there. The scores do show progress has been made in the five years that Winchester students have been attending Keene High, but it's evident that there is a long ways to go to get to a level of proficiency with their peers from schools in Chesterfield, Nelson, Harrisville, Marlborough, Stoddard and Westmoreland.
"We are seeing growth; but the bottom is so low, even with great gains, we still don't get to a level of proficiency", Principal Alan E. Chmiel stated. A high number of low scores can drag down the average for the entire school and Winchester students are "a large group". "And it's a large, large problem", Keene Board of Education Chairman Neil Donegan said. Donegan also stated that it may not be a problem for Keene much longer if the voters in Winchester decide they want to break their contract with keene and re-open Thayer High School.
"Let'em go if they want to go", he stated,If they're not gonna try
(to ready the students for high school) why should we care". Carol Brown, chairman of the Keene Board of Education was a bit more sympathetic; but said even sympathy runs out eventually. "I care about the students and the greater community as much as anyone; but I'm not going to carry the water for them. I think they are squandering an opportunity for their students ".
Wow, sure doesn't sound like a glowing review for the education system in our town of Winchester. It doesn't seem that these students, nor their parents or the overly taxed taxpayers of Winchester are getting their monies ( $10,475,158.00 ) worth, now
does it?

Planning Board Continues To Disappoint ...

and bend over backwards for developer Robert Van Dyke in his efforts to build his proposed Planned Rural Development behind Shamrock Realty on Route #10. In April of 2008, the board granted him a conditional approval despite him not having the necessary permits or a joint use agreement from PSNH needed to comply with the town's regulations. They also ordered him to perform the required erosion controls he was to have done back in December of 2007. As most of us know, he didn't do what was asked and as a result, Route #10 and Shamrock Realty's parking lot flooded out as silt and debris from the site clogged the storm drains on the highway and across the street; which also resulted in flooding a section of an abutters property. The State had to come out and clean out the drains and yet despite not adhearing to the Planning Board's directions, no C&D order was issued and no fines were levied against Van Dyke. Why not?
In October of 2008, under the guise of finally doing the required erosion control work, Van Dyke's crew excated more area and removed more vegetation; yet they still did not perform the work they had been asked to do in the manner they had agreed; seeding exposed areas, covering the seed with straw and putting down erosion control blankets, year round, to control run off and erosion was still visible on the site as water continued to flow towards the highway until the snow fell.
He later asked and was granted a meeting to discuss the 27 conditions he was given by the board and was asked if he understood each one and if he agreed to meet them all, he replied he did; and yet at the meeting on February 2nd, he asked for waivers on several conditions he had agreed upon earlier, claiming once again that performing the necessary work and meeting the town's regulations would put undue hardship on him finacially. If he doesn't have the money to build this condo development by following the conditions set forth by the board under the Town's regulations, should the board keep waiving things until he's satified? Shouldn't the board be working in the best interest of the town and follow the rules and regulations required by the ZBA and enforce them to the letter and stop this pandering? At Monday night's meeting, despite him still not meeting the requirements he agreed to do and still not having a joint use agreement from PSNH and once again, changing his plans to get around the requirments they had set and asking for several conditions to be waived, the board, led by Margaret Sharra once again, ignored the regulations and continued to bend over backwards for him. The board's conduct is becoming unethical and this process has turned into a charade. It's quite obvious that their lack of conviction to follow the rules and regulations set forth in the Planned Rural Development section of the Town of Winchester's Zoning Board Ordinances is being driven by special interests. How else to explain the favoritism, leniency and overall pandering this board has given this applicant? How much more money will have to be spent out of the town's legal budget to defend their actions in a court of law?

Let Voters Have a Say ..

We've received a request to post the following from Terry Qualters.

To Winchester Voters.

This year I submitted a petition to change the board of selectmen from five members to three. My petition had 37 signatures; but now the selectman's attorney says that's not enough; because a state statute says 2% of the town's voters, 59 people would have had to sign the petition. I don't think the state's statutes back up this ruling.
I'm sorry to the people who signed the petition. I knew this wasn't going to be well received by town officials; but I hadn't expected the town's attorney to try this game.

In my opinion;

This notice is for the residents of Winchester who signed the petition (37) to return the number of selectmen from 5 back to 3 under the authority of RSA 48:1-def. June 26, 1990; which is an update from RSA 41:8b eff. July 24,1987; which allowed increasing the board from 3 members to 5 in person. The requirement of 2% of the registered voters is not stated in the statute and only the matter pursuant to RSA 656:13 eff. June 8,1994 applies. If the 2% is not stated in our statute, RSA 48:1-d, it's petition of 25 signatures must stand!

School Board Overrides Budget Committee Recommendations

At the school deliberative session, Thursday Feb 5, 20009, only 85 out of 2905 registered voters showed up. Most were supporters of increasing the schools budget. Colleen Duquette and her supporters were jubilant after getting the budget increases they had lost and who were extremely upset about it, when the town budget committee cut the school budget to $10,048,107. This was still a big increase over last years budget; but Colleen Duquette and the school board wanted more and they made a motion to increase the school budget by $200,000.00. The motion passed as 18 people who showed up voted no and 44 voted yes. Bob Davis, tried to defend the town budget committee cuts with the fact that all towns will get additional state aid funding in 2009 and that Winchester’s share will be $529,445. The town budget committee wanted to hold that money back and give the tax payers of Winchester a break in their tax bills, during these hard economic times; but the School Board had it's way, not happy with the increases they had already received, they wanted more. It is time we voted out people like Colleen Duquette, who continue to add to the tax burden of the citizen's of Winchester.

( submitted by email )

Planning Board Chairperson Continues To Pander

Monday night, February 2nd, the Winchester Planning Board confused and unsure of themselves, continued on with the public hearing of the Planned Residential Development of Rindge contractor Robert Van Dyke. Despite making major, last minute changes to his plans, calling for individual septics and wells, instead of a community water supply and septic design, as well as changing the phase plans of the development, the boards chairperson, Margaret Sharra took it upon herself to continue the hearings despite objections from other board members and the public. As the board went through the list of 27 conditions Van Dyke was to meet to get final approval, it became apparent to everyone in the room they were in way over their heads and should have postponed the meeting until they had sought advice from town council; but instead muddled on and at times seeked advice from not only the applicants attorney; but from the applicant himself.
Chairperson Margaret Sharra continued to ignore the facts that Van Dyke had NOT met numerous conditions and in fact was asking the board to waive several conditions they had set forth. This whole process has turned into a fiasco as the board continues to be swayed and influenced by Margaret Sharra and continues to grant Van Dyke more time to do what he was required to do last year. Is it any wonder why the town has been sued over this ? How many law suits will have to filed before the Planning Board enforces it's own regulations and shuts this project down? We ask that every citizen of Winchester attend the upcoming meeting on February 16th at 7:00pm at the Town Hall and judge for yourself if the Planning Board is acting in the best interest of the town.

Deliberative Session, Saturday February 7th 2009, 9:00am on the main floor of the Town Hall

Evidently the televisions have been turned off at the homes of the town's department heads, Selectmen and Winchester's School Board members; how else to explain their actions and attitudes towards the citizens of Winchester. Perhaps it's just an inability to read and understand that the whole country is facing a fiscal crisis and now is not the time to be rewarding themselves with cost of living raises, performance raises and department budget increases, while the rest of us are forced to face reality and tighten our belts and go without. Where is the fiscal responsibility that we entrusted them with when we cast our votes? Why do they continue this trend of wasteful, unnecessary spending at a time when the state and other towns are laying off employees and cutting back on expenditures in an effort to reduce the strain on families and working parents struggling to make ends meet? It's time to stop this shameful conduct and greed and to send a loud and clear message to those that just don't seem to care about the rest of us. It's time to stand up and be heard and let them know that the citizens of Winchester won't stand for this irresponsible conduct and indifference any longer. Join us at the Deliberative session and raise your voices. Let them know that if they turn a deaf ear to us, we will cast them out come March.