New Hampshire: The Real Facts

I have no doubt that half the Keene Board of Education works hard, and the other half only show up for meetings to vote with no independent homework on the issues (we even have members refusing committee assignments and some who leave early consistently). I have no doubt the board should learn to work smart and not hard. I have no doubt that well end up with a new middle school but is all the hard work aimed in the right direction and what about the timing? The idea of changing a 100 year old schooling situation with 8 months of public exposure has created bad blood, again, among voters.

In its usual fashion the Keene board is trying to get a "Hail Mary" vote passed for $1Million so an architect can be hired to do drawings for a new middle school. Neil Donegan, chairman of the board, says he's been trying to get this middle school issue into public view for 2 years. What service groups or environmental groups did they talk to? What city agencies did they solicit information from? Who spoke to the city council or the planning board? Instead what we got were public hearings that few attended because of prior demonstrations of bad faith by the board that public opinion doesn't matter as with the 34 West St. vote to sell the property they ignored and the purchase of Royal St. property even after being told by voters they didn't want it.

Community based good will goes a long way to stemming the tide of controversy when expensive solutions are needed, but the leadership of the board of education has consistently held its own counsel and disregarded the public. An ideal demonstration of that is the budget rejection last year as well as the failure of the teacher contract because the board was clueless as to public support. This has to stop. Keene city government and the various organizations throughout Keene work too hard to make this a community for all, while the board wields its autonomy like a sword to seemingly protect union causes and status quo.

In a further demonstration of poor judgment the board wants to sell buildings, on its own, without a realtor meaning the few hard workers on the board will again be tackling issues they arent schooled in and wasting precious hours that should be spent working on educational issues. Sure, it cost money to hire professionals, but wouldn't a rise in test scores from the kids be worth more than a few bucks if time were spent in pursuing better education?

As for new Board of Education members, I support Rob Campbell, a native of Keene, a parent, and an honest man who, with his background in loss prevention, is just the man I want watching our bottom line of our budget and I hope you do too.

I will probably also support Carter Chamberlain though I am worried his alignment with the Keene Cares group will lead to more of the same isolationism and union control.

I like Kathleen O'Donnell, but she didn't even want to run, so I'd advise not voting for her and I certainly think we can no longer afford Neil Donegan. Together with Carol Brown, they, as chairmen of the board over the past several years have led us into more decisiveness than is practical and Donegan has clearly demonstrated his total disdain for voter cooperation.

I also would like to support a write in vote for Eli Riviera as Moderator as mentioned in a letter by Ted Parent.

Its time for a change in how the Keene Board of Education does business because we cann't afford the mistakes and missteps of the recent past.