*incumbent
(one three-year seat)
Age: 47
Years living in town: 10
Previous elected office held: School Board Representative, two terms
Other qualifications: father of four ConVal students
What are two issues you think are important and how would you address them?
The two biggest issues facing the ConVal School District are enrollment and funding.
We will continue to wrestle with the problems posed by declining enrollment in some of our schools. Will the solution be some sort of school consolidation? Some change in the way schools are funded? Or policy changes at the town level than encourage young families to move in and refill the schools? I don’t know. I do know that in order to come to a solution, we will need to have a frank and open discussion as a community, even if it is difficult.
ConVal, like many districts, continues to face challenges as a result of actions (or inactions) of the State of New Hampshire. Cost items continue to be imposed on us from Concord, while the state simultaneously fails to meet its Constitutional obligation to provide funding sufficient to ensure an adequate education for every child. ConVal’s Board has been very active in reminding State of its obligation, testifying in the legislature and helping to draft proposed legislation. I hope to continue that effort in another term on the Board.
ConVal has outstanding educational leaders in its administration, outstanding teachers in its classrooms, and outstanding students sitting at its desks. If we as a community continue to support them, they will do great things.
(one three-year seat)
Age: 44
Years living in town: 5
Previous elected office held: Dublin Representative to the ConVal School Board
Other qualifications: Head of School at Hampshire Country School, father of two, recreational farmer, somewhat athletic explorer of our beautiful woods
What are two issues you think are important and how would you address them?
To me, the two most important issues facing the education in our school district are how we address the increase in students who need special services and the continued work on our consolidation plan.
Both speak to the need to look at how we use the limited resources we have in our district as efficient as possible, how we can continue to educate our students in great schools, and how we can make it as cost effective for the taxpayers as possible. My work and my voice will continue to go with what is right for our students and teachers, while not ignoring the fiscal realities.
(one three-year seat)
Age: 41
Years living in town: 2.5
Previous elected office held:None
Other qualifications: Eagle Scout, 20 years experience in workforce development programs at the federal level, a lifetime of leadership
What are two issues you think are important and how would you address them?
1. Improving and evolving the school to career pipeline is a critical need. Much has been discussed about the value of employment in the trades and other occupations “instead of” the college path. The memes on this shared online are endless. I don’t really see it as an either/or issue. As a graduate of Northeastern University and my experience with their cooperative education program, I believe that experiential education and the alignment of employment and education is vital for either path. Employers in the region are desperate for employees. This is due, in part, to our aging population, lack of population growth, and that many parents steer their children away from employment after high school in favor of the college pathway. Many of these employment opportunities are at good employers, that provide good wages and good benefits. Through an expanded presence of the community college system, students that enter employment immediately after high school would still have a pathway to a college degree. This would allow students to earn as they learn and reduce demand on debt to finance a college education.
2. State support of local schools and reducing the unsustainable demand on local property taxes. Recently, at a school board meeting, a member of the public said that we are trying to run a 21st century system on an 18th century taxation model. He’s not wrong. The lack of state support of local schools has led to continued calls to close local elementary schools. Schools are not only places for education. They are building blocks of community. It’s how neighbors meet in rural towns, its where children will form life-long friendships that will hopefully make them want to return to their communities later in life. By 2040, every county in NH will have a negative population trend – deaths will outnumber births. The only vehicles left for sustaining and growing population will be domestic and international immigration. Removing the foundation of small communities – their schools – places those small towns at an additional disadvantage. I’ve traveled all over the Northeast to numerous “one mill” towns when the mill closed. The mill went first. Now the schools are closing. The communities will become a shell of what they once were.
(two three-year seats)
(did not respond to request for profile)
(did not respond to request for profile)
Years living in town: 8
Previous elected office held: ConVal School Board
Other qualifications: I worked as an educator in a career which began in September of 1972 and included fifteen years as a middle school teacher and over nineteen years as a school administrator. The last ten years of which were spent serving as a principal of an elementary school which served grades pre-K -6. I have also taught education courses at the undergraduate level and supervised student teachers. While raising my family in Wantage, I served on the Sussex-Wantage Board of Education for over five years. During the course of my career, I worked with a variety of school districts in New Jersey and New York State.
What are two issues you think are important and how would you address them?
With this in mind, my reason for running for re-election is to help provide a sense of continuity for the Board as we work to develop policies and initiatives which provide our students with quality programs of instruction in a safe and supportive learning environment.
As a senior citizen and taxpayer on a fixed income, I also see the need to balance this mission with the economic realities which we face. As our enrollment continues to decline, our state aid declines. Educational costs continue to be downshifted from the state to the local districts. Costs for transportation, health benefits, and salaries continue to rise. While the legislature has started to address education-related funding concerns, our challenge throughout each budget cycle is to find an appropriate level that addresses our educational costs with our taxpayers’ abilities to fund these expenses.
As to the greatest challenges the Board faces, the most pressing issues which we will face in the short term are dependent on the outcome of the March voting. If the budget passes, we can begin to prepare for the coming school year. If the budget is defeated, we will face a default budget which is 1.25 million dollars less. This will result in many unpopular budgetary cuts in staff and programs. The other warrant articles address issues such as the teachers’ contract, changing the funding formula, setting conditions for studying consolidation, studying the creation of K-6 elementary schools and eliminating existing middle schools. The outcome of the voting on each of these issues will, in turn, require responsive actions and challenges for the Board.
If re-elected, my priorities would be tied to continuing to work with the other members of the Board to address the outcomes of the voting and the address the issues which were contained in these warrants.