Archive for February, 2007

KFM! Reports Early Success

Published by admin on February 28, 2007 in Announcements. 0 Comments

KFM is happy to report early successes in its multi-year effort to become a positive force for education in the Monadnock School District.

  • Website published and 41 registrations to receive KFM News via email
  • Handed out flyers prior to deliberative session
  • Successfully amended several warrant articles to be more supportive of our children and schools
  • Have raised over $2000 from dozens people committed to a positive school agenda
  • On track to send a district wide mailer to explain the warrant articles and support pro education candidates Prior to march 13th.
  • Invited all State Reps and Senators to attend the Deliberative Session
  • Letters to the editor published

It is not too late to join us! As mentioned above this is a multi-year effort to support the children, schools, and communities of the Monadnock School District. Email us at info@kidsfirstmonadnock.com
if you would like to take an active role in our group, or sign up of the email newsletter (to the right) if you would like to receive the occasional update on our efforts

Support the Budget- LTE

Published by admin on February 28, 2007 in Letter to the Editor. 0 Comments

I want to urge the voters of the Monadnock school system to support article 3 of the Monadnock Regional School District warrant to increase wages and benefits of our support staff.

The warrant article is the result of a collective bargaining agreement between the school board and the Monadnock education support staff.

The 196 staff members categorized as support staff are custodians, maintenance people, secretaries and aides, most of whom work directly with special education students, all of whom perform essential functions with great impact on our students’ growth and development.

The bulk of these folks perform some of the toughest tasks for a modest hourly wage.

The support staff has not been under contract for the current school year, and there will be no retroactive pay for this year.

However, in order that our employees stay competitive with new hires and counterparts in other school districts, those that qualify will move up two steps as of July 1.

Not all employees will qualify for step increases.

This negotiated two year agreement also asks that support staff members increase their share in payment of health care premiums, more in line with what we all see in private industry.

This will represent a significant cost savings to the district next year, and the district will realize that savings and more in future years.

Both the school board and administrative staff approve this article.

It was close to being approved by the budget committee, falling short by just seven-tenths of one vote.

The most important ingredient in the educational process is people.

We must attract and retain qualified effective personnel, and should support what is a reasonable negotiated salary and benefit package.

Please send a message by voting in favor of warrant article three, that our support staff is appreciated and that we wish them to continue their efforts on behalf of our community’s youth.

J.E.F. CRAIG
14 Upper Troy Road
Fitzwilliam

School Envy- LTE

Published by admin on February 17, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

To the Sentinel:
I admit it. I have school envy. While participating in the recent Project P. AR T.y event at Keene High School, one of the Keene High School art teachers gave me a tour of her school’s auditorium and theater complex.

From the Green Room to the catwalk, I observed a facility that was a model of modern functionality, safety and design. All I can say is that I hope the students, staff and constituents of the Keene School District appreciate the outstanding auditorium-theater at their high school.

The contrast is stark to me. For nearly 23 years I have taught art and been in the Fine and Performing Arts Department at Monadnock Regional High School. We have consistently strived to create quality musical and theatrical productions in our own auditorium, which was never designed as a theater. We have no fly space, and no adjacent rooms designed to support our productions.
We do not have classrooms or studios for our band, drama or dance classes. All of these classes have to compete for the use of the stage, and we have to work around the class schedules while in production for shows. The situation demands and receives a tremendous amount of cooperation, tolerance and commitment within our department.

In addition to woefully inadequate space, we also have had to deal with safety and maintenance issues on the stage. After a curtain pole fell last fall, an inspection revealed that the rigging system on the stage was in dangerously worn condition. To the credit of our school administration, we have undergone extensive replacement of essential basic equipment.

Despite valiant efforts by the Monadnock maintenance and custodial staff, and our school and school administration, it is difficult to keep up with all of the maintenance and repair issues throughout our school.

The building is just wearing out — from the stage, to the gymnasium floor, to the roof — the place is showing its age and degree of use. I hate to think about the possible condition of the original electrical wiring throughout the classrooms, which was never designed for the electrical load computer systems require.

However, many voters in our district have made it clear repeatedly that they will not support the construction of a new school, or recently, substantial expansions. We are fortunate if we can get a positive vote for essential maintenance — and that’s usually only if we use the capital reserve fund. We have to sponsor fundraisers to raise money for equipment and facility upgrades.

It amazes me that less than 10 miles away, Keene High School has the community will and support to provide its students with an outstanding school facility. I understand there are slight differences in the composition and size of the populations, but clearly, it has to reflect priorities as well.

As a possible solution, perhaps we should offer Monadnock High to the Cheshire County Commission to use for a jail, and they can use their millions to build us a new school.

Which population is more deserving of a new, modern, safe and functional building — our kids, or the inmates?

DEB CROWDER
48 Mill Lane
Swanzey

A school choice program gets Washington’s attention,

Published by admin on February 15, 2007 in Reporting. 0 Comments

but Community Connections still could lose funding

Anika Clark- Sentinel Staff (Reposted with Permission of the Keene Sentinel)

Before graduating from high school this June, Cass Carland, a 19-year-old student at Monadnock Community Connections School, must present her accomplishments before a panel of community members.

And on Thursday, Carland, of Keene, will get a unique chance to practice - in front of the U.S. Department of Education.

“This is our school’s gateway, I guess, in some respects,” said Monadnock Community Connections Director Kim Carter. The gateway presentations, she said, mark a student’s completion of each academic level.

In a similar way this Thursday, Carland will help describe Monadnock Community Connections’ achievements over the last five years.Carter will accompany Carland to Washington, D.C., although she said this morning the weather has some of the travel details up in the air.

The two will also be joined by Elizabeth Cardine, a teacher and advisor at Monadnock Community Connections, and Dixie Gurian, project director for Monadnock Region Public Schools of Choice.

Monadnock Community Connections is an alternative high school program in Surry that has been partially funded by a school-choice grant set to expire this fall.
Controversy threatening the program’s existence has hovered for years - particularly surrounding the program’s potential cost to taxpayers once grant funds run out.
But on Thursday, Carland will represent a program she said made her stop hating school.

As the federal Voluntary Public School Choice program gears up for its next cycle, three former grant recipients - including Monadnock Community Connections, which is one of several area programs partially funded by the grant - will describe to Department of Education employees the programs they built from those funds.

According to Melinda K. Malico, the department’s director of internal communications, Monadnock Community Connections was chosen from the 13 grant recipients to participate in Thursday’s briefing, in part, because its rural character is unique. In addition, she said, “their record of success is very impressive.”

Among Monadnock Community Connections’ strengths, she said, is its internship program, the active role students take in learning and the linking of their goals to New Hampshire curriculum guidelines.

In addition, she complimented the program’s gateway process as a valuable pre-professional tool.

“It just seems like a very imaginative program that has a lot of energy in it.” Malico said. “There’s so much to be done in high schools, so I’m very hopeful that this school’s going to present us a lot of creative … ways of ratcheting up both academics and interest.”

And while playing teacher to the Department of Education, Carland will receive an academic lesson that reflects Monadnock Community Connection’s core values.

As Malico said, Monadnock Community Connections encourages students to be active in their education. Consistent with this, Carter said Carland was picked to represent the program because she took the initiative and wrote a proposal about its educational value.

Carland has also discussed with her social studies teacher how to use the trip to enhance her understanding of the federal government.

And to meet any travel costs that may not be covered by the federal school-choice grant, Carland has offered to dip into her own fundraising money.

The trip will also give Carland - and the peers she represents - a chance to be heard.

“Going to D.C. is going to, I think, help again for us to focus on the big picture - that, you know, maybe we’ve got some angry school board members here, but Washington, D.C., wants to hear what we have to say,” Carland said.

In addition to being broadcast via internal television and Internet throughout the Department of Education, the presentation will be streamed to 10 regional offices, Malico said.

Summaries will be printed in the department newsletter and Monadnock Community Connections’ PowerPoint presentation will be loaded onto the Department’s Web site.

Teaching students to use their voices effectively and with integrity, said Carter, is part of Monadnock Community Connections’ mission.
“To have one of their peers go speak and represent them, I think that’s very important,” she added.

Adam D. Martino, 17, a Monadnock Community Connections student from Swanzey, called Carland’s visit a “good thing” and said, “It seems at the local level many persons want to see us close down. If we get national support,” he said, “it’s kind of trumping the local people.”

It is also an affirmation, Carter said, for a program frequently under fire.

“The fact that our commissioner of education says that this is a model for the New Hampshire state standards, that the (New England) accreditation committee gave us three commendations … and now to have the federal invitation, it tells the kids that they are involved in something that’s worthwhile and meaningful,” Carter said.

Dr. Lyonel B. Tracy, commissioner of education, was not available for comment.

But James I. Carnie, a school board member from Richmond, said he questions the purpose of taking such a trip so late in the game.

“The problem is that the grant is running out, so what’s the purpose of going down to Washington?” asked Carnie.

Carnie said it would have made more sense for representatives from Washington to pay a local visit earlier in the grant cycle to examine Monadnock Community Connections’ expenditures and to evaluate the program’s merit.

In addition, he said, the thrust of the concern about Monadnock Community Connections is not a question of the education quality, for the most part, but whether the district can afford it.

Carland said she doesn’t take such criticism personally. However, the teenager who used to despise school said she regrets the anxiety and tension it causes “because that distracts from the learning environment.”

The New Hampshire Disadvantage: The Tax Mess We’re in and Why It Hurts Our Kids

Published by admin on February 12, 2007 in Taxes. 0 Comments

Rob Mitchell

With all of the complaining we do about taxes in the Monadnock Regional School District, you might think that New Hampshire taxpayers have one of the highest tax burdens in the country.

You would be mistaken.

Overall, when it comes to the level of state and local taxes, New Hampshire ranks 49th, according to the MoneyCentral story, The Best and Worst States for Taxes. (The table below is excerpted from the story, and sorted by state rank).

Overall, New Hampshire taxpayers have some of the lowest taxes of any state in the Union. So what’s wrong?

New Hampshire relies more heavily on the property tax than any other state and it ranks near the bottom in terms of the level of state aid to education.The rest of the burden for supporting education falls on local government.

Schools are the one of the most expensive parts of state and local government, yet the majority that burden is shouldered by taxpayers through state and local property taxes. Why is that unfair? One hundred years ago only the wealthy owned property. Property taxes were a tax on the rich.

Times change. Owning a home has become a staple of the middle class, including those with low or moderate income. In addition, property is no longer is the sole basis of wealth – merely a tiny part of it. The property tax has evolved to become a “regressive” tax that reduces the tax load on people with higher incomes and shifts it disproportionately to those with smaller incomes. Many of the wealthiest citizens pay relatively little while poor and moderate income homeowners shoulder a high tax burden in proportion to their income.

While the State of New Hampshire has been under pressure to adequately fund education, it has no viable way to raise the revenues needed to do so. New Hampshire is one of just five states that have no sales tax and it’s one of just seven with no income tax. Only Alaska has neither an income tax nor a sales tax. Unlike New Hampshire, however, Alaska has huge oil tax revenues that support its government.

Politicians in New Hampshire have boxed themselves in, having taken “The Pledge” against new taxes in general and income taxes in particular. The lobby against the sales tax is strong. They call it “The New Hampshire Advantage.” But to whose advantage is it, really? Every state that New Hampshire borders has a sales tax. A sales tax would simply level the playing field, not put New Hampshire merchants at a disadvantage. Can’t our merchants compete on an even footing with those across our borders?

This state of affairs leaves the state with few options. New Hampshire cobbles together funds to run government through its liquor store monopoly, “sin taxes” on cigarettes, gasoline taxes, a prepared food tax, and lotto ticket sales, among others. Since those revenues aren’t enough to make ends meet, the state is perpetually cutting back on programs.

New Hampshire managed to scrape by until the state was forced by a Supreme Court ruling to start funding a bigger piece of education pie. It had no money to do so and no mechanism for raising more revenues. Instead of finding a new and equitable way to raise taxes, the state turned to the property tax – the very tax that has created the crisis in the first place.

Property taxes are much hated, and not just in New Hampshire. According the MSN story, “A recent poll by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation says that no tax annoys Americans as much as the property tax. One probable reason for this, according to a foundation report, is that property owners often have to write the checks themselves, increasing the likelihood of sticker shock. Another reason is that because of the housing boom of the past few years, property taxes have climbed more quickly than incomes.”

Thanks to the state’s dereliction of duty when it comes to funding education, and due to its inability to provide its citizens with a fair and equitable system of taxation, the burden of government continues to fall disproportionately on the backs of those of moderate means. The New Hampshire Advantage accrues primarily to the wealthy and to merchants, while New Hampshire homeowners have the dubious distinction of having the second highest property taxes in the country, ranking only behind New Jersey. Ironically, while the wealthy are increasingly moving to lower tax states, many are not choosing New Hampshire.

The ultimate victim of this penny-wise pound foolish government isn’t just the taxpayer: it’s our educational system and our kids. With five straight years of default – or less than default – budgets in the Monadnock Regional School District, our children are the ones who have paid the price..

<h2>Taxes by State </h2>

State Gasoline* Cigarettes Retail sales** All state, local taxes*** Rank

We need to move schools forward- LTE Feb 7

Published by admin on February 7, 2007 in Letter to the Editor. 0 Comments

The Monadnock Regional School District, collectively and not as eight individual towns, has the power on March 13 to effect a positive change for our kids and hence our communities.

Our communities will plummet right along with the schools if we don’t stop the downhill slide now.

Businesses and their workers want to contribute to a tax base that gives a return on their dollars and we desperately need to keep them and attract them to our towns. We have created a division amongst ourselves by comparing what we pay to what our neighbors pay in other towns in our district.

The inequities of the statewide property tax cannot be solved at the local level and we all need to tell our reps to find an equitable solution. But we need to move forward as a united front and fix our district now.

While we’ve maintained the status quo with default budgets many issues have been on hold for years, namely our accreditation problem, the building issue that goes along with that and the repair and maintenance issues that have been backlogged.

Any progress within our educational programs has been put on the back burner. But on March 13 we have the power to unite and do the right thing for the kids and our communities.

This year, the warrant of articles, combined, account for a 6 percent increase over the current year.

There is nothing of major consequence on the warrant: no building plans, no contract for the teachers, no new programs.

However, if passed, it allows the district to make headway on those backlogged maintenance issues and keeps a default budget from sending us backward any further on the educational side.

The operating budget increase itself is less than 5 percent and only one of three maintenance articles requires new appropriations.

Both the school board and the budget committee, with the exception of the support staff contract and petition articles, recommend all of the articles.

That is the majority of 30 people that we’ve elected.

We elected them to decipher the spending of the district and come back to us with their opinions. They’re telling us that these expenditures are worthy of our “yes” vote.

The support staff contract missed recommendation from the budget committee by less than one vote and has the support of the school board.

The contract does give our aides, clerical and maintenance staff a raise, but it also requires them to pay a greater share of their healthcare benefits

There was a time when the health care costs were not so astronomical and it will take time to remedy the apportioning of those costs.

We cannot expect the staff to take a huge pay cut to make up the difference. We wouldn’t have any staff left. They would all go elsewhere to work.

It’s very tempting to step into that voting booth where you are all by yourself and vote “no.”

That’s a power we have that is granted us only on the local level. We don’t get to vote directly on the state budget or the federal budget or bridges and highways. Only on the local level do we have that power. Please don’t abuse it. Support your schools and therefore your community as well.

For more information on the warrant articles visit kidsfirstmonadnock.com.

JENNIFER GOMARLO
100 Cram Hill Road
Swanzey