New Hampshire: The Real Facts

THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE FROM THE KEENE CITIZENS GOVERNMENT REVIEW. BELOW YOU WILL FIND AN E-MAIL FROM SCHOOL BOARD FINANCE CHAIRPERSON LIZ COPPOLA. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO WORK TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY WITH REFERENCE TO THE KEENE MIDDLE SCHOOL ISSUE. PLEASE READ MS. COPPOLA’S MESSAGE AND THE SENTINEL PRESS RELEASE BELOW. EXTEND AN INVITATION TO HER EITHER THROUGH THIS KCGR E-MAIL ADDRESS OR VIA HER PERSONAL E-MAIL ADDRESS. EXAMPLES OF ORGANIZATIONS THAT MIGHT BE INTERESTED WOULD BE: FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES, ELKS LODGE, KEENE LYONS CLUB, ITALIAN CLUB, ORDER OF MOOSE LOYAL, SENIOR CITIZEN CENTER, AMERICAN LEGION POST 4, HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY OR ANY SMALL CITIZENS GROUP.

Carl A. Panza

“PLEASE GET INVOLVED… the world is run by those who show up”

Marc Epstein looks at the this June's NYS Regents History exam questions and finds things have gotten even worse in public education lala-land!

A year ago, I wrote about the dumbing down of New York State's Regents exams, the five tests in core subjects that students must pass to get a regular high school diploma. Since then, little has changed - unless it's that the exams have become even dumber. Look no further than this year's United States history and government exam for 11th-graders, which was administered last month.

An offer they can't refuse?
Board gets grant invitation to study two KMS options

Sarah Palermo
Sentinel Staff

Carol A. Brown looked a possible gift horse in the mouth - and smelled something fishy.

Brown, a member of the Keene Board of Education, was the sole vote against applying for a $1 million grant for a Keene Middle School feasibility study at the suggestion of an anonymous donor, to be administered by the N.H. Charitable Foundation.

Despite months of vowing to push forward with plans for a new middle school, the board decided on Tuesday night, by a vote of 7-1, to ask for the $1 million grant, to study the comparative costs of constructing a new school versus renovating the current building.

We have spent many man-hours reviewing the situation at the Keene Middle School; its condition, and events that led us to our current state of affairs. I requested all documents pertaining to the Keene Middle School using NH’s Right to Know Law and used them as the basis for this report. This law gives citizen’s access to all public documents upon request from a governing body.

I made the RTK request to the Keene School District, The City of Keene, & the State of NH Fire Marshall in Concord.

There are a number of issues to bring forward and I will provide just a summary of those tonight. Due to the depth of information & lengthy chain of events, a more detailed presentation will occur at a later date directly to the public.

Folks, I need some advice. The County portion of the property tax is scheduled to increase by a whopping 38.77%.

County Example:
2007-08 - $3,731,326
2008-09 - $5,177,924
Increase: 38.77%

We all know that part of this is the result of the new Jail being placed in Keene. How could this increase have been avoided?

As it stands right now the total Keene property tax increase for fiscal 2008-09 stands at 7.68%. Here is how the rest of it breaks down.

City Example:
2007-08 - $19,756,948
2008-09 - $20,705,505
Increase: 4.8%

Local Education Example:
2007-08 - $22,470,428
2008-09 - $23,898,794
Increase: 6.35%

State education:
2007-08 - $3,852,359
2008-09 - $3,852,359
Increase: 0%

Weighted average:
2007- 08 - $49,811,061
2008- 09 - $53,634,582

VISIT REPORT WITH MR. GARY LA FRENIERE - CAPTAIN OF FIRE PREVENTION Date: 04/14/08

VISIT OBJECTIVE:

To understand the middle school issues leading up to the March vote and issues we are now facing:

HIGHLIGHTS

At 10:30 a.m. on 4/14/08 I had an appointment with Gary LaFreniere – Keene Captain of Fire Prevention. My primary goal was to determine if the Keene school board received timely and sufficient information on the Middle School Code violations to warrant faster action. Below are random highlights of my 1 ½ hour meeting:

• Gary LaFreniere started about ten years ago as a fire prevention/code violation inspector for the Keene Fire department,

Now that the voting dust has cleared regarding Keene Middle School, the
new issue of repairs to maintain safety is huge. I don’t envy the
board their task, but I have to also admit I’m quite angry with the way
this has evolved and the manner in which previous boards handled years
of neglect in the Keene School District buildings.

Board member, Carol Brown, says there is “wiggle room” in the budget to
put towards some problems at the middle school. What that means is
they will redirect money allocated for other buildings to go back and
do things that have become “emergencies” at Keene middle school. This
is Band-Aid management at its worst and yet no one is ever held
accountable in the voting booth. As long as the union contracts are

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.

Keene Citizens Government Review

VOTE ON MARCH 11th

Question 1: Shall the District raise and appropriate the sum of $1,000,000 for planning and other preliminary expenses relating to construction of a new middle school……(SEE ATTACHED )

VOTE - YES

Also, all questions related to contract salary and benefit negotiations have been found to be reasonable and a “yes” vote is recommended

In January 15th, there will be another Public Hearing on the Middle School Issue. The Keene Citizens Government Review advisors are steadily collecting information and doing research on what projected effect this will have on property taxes based on the School Board’s recommendation.

Another concern is the projected city tax increase of 5.3% for fiscal 2008-09 as described in the recently published Keene City Capital Improvement Program. What happened to the guideline of following the CPI (Consumer Price Index)? The CPI for the Northeast presently stands at 3.6%.

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe asks who's responsible for the education of children: parents or the government?

We cannot imagine any Keene resident looking at this Keene Education Association flier that came in the Shopper Wednesday, August 22, and voting for this salary increase at the coming Keene school district re-vote. All people would have to do is compare these school district wage raises with their own.

The teachers are actually promoting total district salary expense increases of 9.93%, 4.95%, 4.97%, and 4.92% to the residents! That's a compound district salary expense increase of 27.06%. Just multiply the percentages out.