Newport Schools to Receive $390,000 from "Obama's Let's Bankrupt the US Funds"

The Valley News is reporting that Newport Schools will receive $390,000 from the "Let's put our children and grandchildren in debt for the rest of their lives fund." The story is titled "A Windfall for Twin State Schools" and appears in the March 26th addition of the Valley News.

The money comes with stipulations that could create problems for Newport taxpayers in the future. The stipulations are that the money must supplement current budgets it cannot be used within the current budget thus giving taxpayers a rebate at the end of the school year. There is also no guarantee that that this money will be available again in 2011 (which is a good thing because this is just printed money that has been added to the US debt). Once enacted these programs will either be dropped after 2011 or the Newport Taxpayers will be asked to increase their property taxes yet again in 2011.




I believe that Newport schools and all schools should just reject this money as that it is just funds that are bankrupting our Country. Rejection of the funds would set a good example for the students of Newport about fiscal responsibility and living within your means. But, Newport schools rejecting these funds is about as likely as a crack addict giving up crack.

Since Newport and Croydon are part of SAU 43 will Newport share the funds with Croydon? If Newport keeps the money they should offer it to Croydon as a good faith measure since our contract is expiring in 2010 with Newport schools. I would hope that the Croydon board would reject the funds but we will have to see what happens at the next school board meeting if it is indeed offered. Than again sharing of the funds is about as likely as an 18 month old sharing his favorite toy.

Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.

Full Day Kindergarten Is Not in the Best Interest Of Children.

There is plenty of research out there that shows early education does not provide benefit to a child unless of course it is spun or done by educrats who would benefit from the tax dollars of said early education programs. That research can be found here, here and here just to name a few. Further research on your own and you would glean not only is early education not a benefit to children it is a waste of taxpayer money.

The Newport School Board needs to do some research into the issue and voters should reject full day kindergarten this spring. If parents and educators want to really help children, some real sacrifices are going to need to be made. Parents are going to have to put their children first. Teachers are going to have to put the interests of the children ahead of the status quo, education fads and the teachers union. Good teachers are going to have to confront bad teachers. Reading, writing and arithmetic must be the primary focus and must be mastered before teaching education fads such as diversity and global warming. When children master the basics children will succeed in mastering subjects such as science and history.

Cathy




The following piece appears in the Eagle Times.

Board backs all-day kindergarten


Money would come from surplus

By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN, Staff Writer
Thursday, January 08, 2009 8:28 PM

NEWPORT -- The Newport School Board voted 3-1 Thursday night to offer a voluntary all-day kindergarten program to the students of Newport as a pilot program for one year starting with the next school year.

If approved by voters, money for the program, estimated to cost $80,000, would come from surplus funds, if any, at the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, and/or donations.

The actual wording for the warrant article for the March school meeting will be finalized before the public hearing on the proposed 2009-10 school budget.

If the article passes and money is available, it will not lock in Newport to funding the full-day kindergarten for more than the next school year. Money after the one-year pilot test would have to be approved by voters.

According to Brannigan, the $80,000 would provide money for one additional teacher plus benefits along with setting up one additional classroom.

Two other kindergarten warrant article options were not approved by the board.

One asked that the school district be authorized to expand the kindergarten program to offer full-day kindergarten when money becomes available.

A second would have authorized a school district vote to appropriate from surplus funds, if any, the sum of $120,000 to offer full-day kindergarten.

Although he is a strong supporter of all-day kindergarten, school board member John LaRock voted against the article favored by the other three board members.

"I believe it sends a message that the board does not support all-day kindergarten. I am not in favor of the article as it reads. I think we will receive criticism. We are sneaking in the back door," he stated.

LaRock said at a retreat last summer the board said very clearly it would pursue full-day kindergarten. "Doing No. 3 alone is not making a statement," he added. LaRock was referencing the article that eventually gained the board's support Thursday night,.

At the suggestion of Jeff Kessler, a member of the Newport Budget Advisory Committee, the board agreed to add in the words "and/or donations" if the entire $80,000 was not available from a budget surplus in June.

There was also a fourth option presented to the board by Brannigan and Business Administrator Jim Vezina. It would have sought authorization to appropriate from the State Adequate Education Grant a half-day call back program to support kindergarten students who need an academic booster program.

"We would be trying to give students extra help," Brannigan said.

Other articles were also discussed that would utilize surplus money, if passed. The importance of placing the kindergarten article ahead of the others was emphasized. If the first special article on the warrant passes and uses all the surplus funds available, there would be no money left to fund any of the others.

Thought of the Day: "Obama Says Sacrifice Needed to Fix Economy, Some Promises Must Be Delayed..." Most people who voted against Obama already knew that he would never be able to fulfill his campaign promises. I just feel sorry for the individuals who actually believed them to be true.

School board meeting notes and commentary for August 13, 2008

Jim presented the results of the Croydon Survey at the August school board meeting. Out of 269 surveys sent out 70 were returned. This is an outstanding response rate of 26%. Typically you can expect a 2% return rate on surveys. If anyone would like a copy of the results we can attempt to email them. Contact us at george@joltmail.com, fax them or call us 863-7613. The high percentage of return means two things; people are very passionate about the results, and they hold faith that the school board will listen and follow through. A discussion of the results produced some interesting suggestions. Parents sending their children to Newport could use the Croydon bus. Parents sending their children elsewhere would have to provide transportation themselves. Newport would serve as a costing baseline. If a parent sent their children to a school other than Newport they would have to pay the difference out of pocket. It was also suggested that no contract with a single district would be made and that parents would be responsible to follow through and register their children at the district of choice. This is done in a number of other districts and there is no reason why it can not be done in Croydon as well. Again this was only a discussion no final plans have been made I personally hope that the board will see fit to follow through with the wishes of Croydon residents.

Second was a discussion of ACT results and college readiness. The results showed that only 25% of the test takers were college ready in all four subjects tested. Those subjects were English composition, algebra, social science and biology. Why isn't everybody ready for college? Okay everybody may not be a possibility, but 25% was considered "failing" when I went to school. We would like to see 90%+ of students college ready. Newport school board, teachers and administrators should not be happy with a measly 25% rate especially in light of the fact that we are paying well over $10,000 per year to educate our children.

Newport "Goals" were passed at the school board meeting. Goal one is to have warrant articles that have no tax impact. Bravo to the Newport School Board for being fiscally responsible.

Bad news is they are proposing full-day kindergarten. Prior posts explain why kindergarten is not necessary and is an unnecessary educational expense.

It was also reported that Newport was looking for a Calculus teacher. Why on earth is any high school math teacher teaching and not able to teach Calculus? Any math teacher who can not teach calculus should be fired and replaced with a teacher who can teach Calculus. Since it is a difficult position to fill a bonus should be paid to hire said teacher. Unfortunately teachers are in unions and unions exist for teachers and to protect bad teachers not to do what is best for the students.

Cathy Peschke

Sign of the Times

In the article below the editors conclude that failure of several warrant articles was the result of a poor economy. But they fail to take into consideration a second factor: the passage of SB-2 in May 2007. Some people are more willing to vote against a tax increase if their teachers, superintendents, firemen, police officers, etc. are not looking to see who is supporting their tax increases. We saw it here in Croydon and it happens in other towns across New Hampshire. We also saw it in caucuses across this country during the primaries the past 5 months.

The editors point out that it only saves $18 on $100,000 house. Most houses in Newport are well over $100,000 and Newport has one of the highest tax rates in the state. The authors fail to acknowledge that people are already spending thousands to to tens of thousands of dollars annually in property taxes. Its inappropriate to minimize the defeat by saying it is only 18 cents more per 1,000. That trick is commonly used to pass tax increases by tax eaters.

Voters were willing to spend money where they felt it was necessary (ex. the ambulance). If the economy was the true culprit, I doubt any tax increases would have passed.

The more plausible explanation is that people simply feel the schools and the town are getting enough money and it is time for them to start spending it wisely.

Cathy


The following Our View appears in the Eagle Times.

Sign of the times
As general rule, if a town or a school district anticipates the tax rate will decrease under their proposed budgets and other spending articles, it is safe to assume voters will say yes.

But that is in so-called normal times and these are not normal times. With gasoline approaching $4 a gallon and home heating oil about the same, cash-strapped residents are wondering if they will have enough money to stay warm and get to work. This is no longer about cutting out the weekly movie.

We offer that as an explanation as to what happened in Newport during town meeting Tuesday. The town manager and board of selectmen had proposed a budget and other warrant articles that would have reduced the town tax rate an estimated six cents per $1,000 if they passed. As little as a year ago, such a proposal had a pretty good chance of gaining voter approval. But this year is different and by rejecting the budget and all but three articles, residents could see their town tax rate fall by 18 cents. Yes, that is only $18 on a $100,000 home but the escalating cost of energy means that money could buy maybe a half a tank of gas.

No one can say today what energy costs will be next March, but we would bet that if they are just as high, if not higher, many town and school districts will be experiencing what Newport experienced Tuesday.

Understandably reluctant

Quote of the Day - "Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." - Joseph Stalin

The following piece appeared in the Eagle Times.


Understandably reluctant
The impact all-day kindergarten will have on students as they move through elementary, middle and then high school is not a certain thing.


Logic would tell us that the more time young children spend in a learning environment the better they will be as they get older. But as everyone knows, other factors affecting a child's ability and desire to learn, such as the home environment, can erase the benefit of early learning.

In Newport, a group of residents are pushing hard for the school board to find $40,000 in next year's budget to pay a third of the $120,000 needed for full-day kindergarten. A Newport businessman has pledged $40,000 and community members are trying to raise another $40,000 in donations. If that effort proves successful, then the school board will have to decide whether it will come up with the final piece.

The money for all-day kindergarten was included in the proposed budget but when that budget failed at the polls, the board had to come up with $186,000 in reductions to meet the default budget figure. The administration recommended, and a split board agreed, to cut the full-day kindergarten money.

But board member Jim Lantz remained committed to seeing the program survive and that led to the present situation.

No doubt the school board would have no qualms with funding this program as well as many others if the money was there. But providing the best educational opportunities throughout the school district is not its only responsibility; it also has to consider the tax impact of every program it includes in the budget. If $40,000 goes toward kindergarten, where will it come from? This problem makes it entirely understandable that board members are reluctant to vote for the program.

In the past, Newport voters have rejected separate warrant articles for all-day kindergarten. That message has not been lost on some board members. The concern that coming up with $40,000 in the new budget will anger voters and come back to haunt the board at next year's budget vote is real. The $80,000 in non-tax dollars will not be there for 2009-10 and the board could get in trouble with voters if it just plugs the $120,000 into the next budget.

So the question is whether there exists a solid majority that favors all-day kindergarten or is it a vocal minority. Perhaps the best approach is for the board to find the $40,000 this year, assuming the public donations are received, then have a separate warrant article in 2009. In this way, the kindness of businessman Ray Malool, who donated $40,000, and the hard work of those raising money in the community does not go unrecognized or unrewarded. But once again, the board needs to hear from all taxpayers about this program and making it again a separate warrant article will give them that answer.


Go to the Eagle Times
to read the great comment by Suzanne.

Questions to ask yourself before supporting any tax warrant.

Our government and government schools have a spending problem and not a funding problem. We continue to see reduced productivity, deficit spending, debt, guaranteed pensions far exceeding social security, salary increases exceeding the rate of inflation and benefits far exceeding those of us in the private sector that pay these benefits for our government/school employees.

Here are some questions to ask before voting on any education warrants and tax increases.

1. Can I afford an increase in my rent or property taxes?
2. Do I have credit card debt that should be paid off first?
3. Do I have six months salary in my savings account to live off of, if I lose my job?
4. Do I save 10% of my salary each month for my retirement?
5. Am I saving enough money for my children's college education?
6. When I retire my spouse and I will need between $500,000 - 1,000,000 when we retire to live for the next 30 years. Do we have at least 500,000.00 dollars in our retirement account? (This assumes that you are not a state, city, county or school employee with a guaranteed pension that is a percentage of your 3 highest years salary.)
7. Can I continue to afford this warrant if it does pass, because as my assessment increases so will the amount that I pay for the warrant each year?
8. Do I want to put my house at risk for foreclosure?

Here are some questions to ask your school boards, administrators and teachers before voting.

1. How will you balance the budget if the warrant fails?
2. Why is the cost of education going up as much as 10 times faster than the cost of living?
3. Some teachers and administrators are receiving salary increases far exceeding the rate of inflation. How do you expect people in the community to afford the warrant when their salaries went up 3% if they got a raise or 2.1% if they are on social security?
4. 15% of the population does not have health insurance and the rest of the working population pays on average 22% of their own insurance and as much as 100% of their families' premiums. What percentage of their insurance premiums do teachers and administrators pay for themselves and their families?
5. If the warrant does pass do you promise to balance the budget and never come again to the public for another tax warrant?
6. If you plan on coming to us again for a warrant when will that be?
7. Does this plan to spend more money include class size reduction? If so do the teachers plan to take a proportionate pay cut for the reduction in workload?
8. Why do teacher salaries and administrative salaries increase at a rate far above the CPI?
9. Are your unions or associations trying to raise our state taxes as well as our property taxes?
10. If a warrant passes, when will we see our property taxes increased?
11. If asking for a building warrant when do you planning to come to us with an education warrant to staff the new building.

Attempt to cut school budget fails in Newport

The article below from the Eagle Times
details some of the less-than-inspiring events during the Newport school deliberative session. Particularly telling was Superintendent Bill Mealey's sarcastic retort to resident Rick Thomas' calls for much-needed spending cuts:

"God forbid the facts get in the way of emotion".

Apparently Mr. Mealey has forgotten that he works for Mr. Thomas (as well as every other taxpayer in Newport school district).

The district seemingly considers full-day kindergarten and expansive teacher contracts more important that the financial solvency of the district or its residents.

Attempt to cut school budget fails in Newport

Aaron Aldridge
Staff Writer

NEWPORT - Tempers flared at the Newport school deliberative session Tuesday night when resident Rick Thomas listed dozens of ways the school board could reduce the proposed $16.5 million budget by at least $1 million.




"I understand the money is tight, but there is room to make cuts," said Thomas, a former school board member.

As Thomas spouted facts for more than half an hour about reduced enrollment in the district and the ever-increasing cost to educate a child, Superintendent Bill Mealey momentarily took control of the podium from Thomas in order to respond.

"God forbid the facts get in the way of emotion," Mealey said, claiming that Thomas' statements were incorrect.

The two-hour discussion over the budget began when budget advisory committee chairman Dwight LaFountain made a motion to reduce the budget by $190,000 - or $4,000 less than the default budget.

The motion eventually failed, but not until after several people voiced their opinions.

LaFountain said the advisory committee voted to not recommend the school board's budget for several reasons, including the decision to add two teaching positions for kindergarten. Five teachers are retiring but the board agreed not to replace three of them, cutting one position each at Towle Elementary, the middle school and high school. The savings was used to pay for all-day kindergarten.

"I do not agree with the choices," LaFountain said. "It does appear from what we've been told is that enrollment is declining and positions will not be filled. It was our strong recommendation to the board to bring in a warrant article for kindergarten."

Voters have twice rejected a warrant article for all-day kindergarten in recent years.

According to school board member Bob Collins, the amount in the budget to fund all-day kindergarten is $120,000.

LaFountain also said the committee felt that the special education budget is too high.

"We also feel a reduction in the special education budget would be appropriate," LaFountain said.

School board chair Kathy Sarles said that if the budget does not pass as proposed, the school district will have a financial crisis.

"The initiatives are gone," Sarles said. "The long-term goals of having kindergarten and small classes are gone. It will be crisis management."

Before the motion was made to cut the budget, Collins explained to the crowd of 60 people, made up mostly of school staff and administration and town officials, that a majority of the proposed budget increase, or 78 percent, came from previously approved articles such as debt service for the addition at Richards School and teacher and staff contracts.

The remainder of the increase was from special education and costs associated with the school administrative unit.

"One of the first things we asked as a board from our administrators was a very meager budget," Collins said. "We feel the budget presented will allow the Newport School District to grow and prosper for years to come."

If the budget passes during all-day voting March 11, the local school property tax is estimated to increase by $1.87 per $1,000 of property value to $12.90.

All other articles were moved without discussion, including:

• Creation of an unanticipated educational services fund.

• Adding $50,000 to the building renovation capital reserve fund.

• Creation of a land purchase capital reserve fund.

• $15,000 to repair the retaining walls at Towle School.

• $1 million for the building renovations capital reserve fund.

None of the other warrant articles are expected to have an impact on the property tax except Article 7 to replace the retaining walls. If passed, the estimated tax increase is 3 cents per $1,000 of property value.

All quiet before the vote $10M school renovation on warrant Tuesday

The following piece appeared in the Eagle Times. Take note of the following line from the article below "Establishment of a land purchase capital reserve fund." What the most likely means is that they are going to eventually ask the voters for more money to purchase land, than they will ask for more money to purchase a school, than they will ask for more money to staff the schools. When will the cycle end? If the district is concerned about growth impacting the need for the new schools. The district needs to work with the City of Newport. New developments should not be approved unless the new developments pay for future schools that need to be built. Current residents should not be responsible for the building of new schools that should be the responsibility of the developers of new homes. The city of Newport needs to grow responsibly.

All quiet before the vote
$10M school renovation on warrant Tuesday

Aaron Aldridge
Staff Writer

NEWPORT - Although the public was invited to attend a forum Thursday night on next Tuesday's vote on a $10 million school renovation plan, no residents arrived to discuss the proposal or the budget with board members.


School Board Chairperson Anthony McConnell gave a presentation on the proposed $10.5 million warrant article for an addition at Richards School and renovations at Towle School and the middle high school.

The proposed project includes moving the sixth grade back to Towle School, moving the fourth grade to Richards School, building a large addition at Richards and renovating all three schools in the district to bring them up to health and safety code standards.

A 60 percent majority is needed to pass the bond issue which will have a tax impact of $1.23 per thousand dollars of property value the first year, $2.95 the second year and about 10 cents less each of the following years until the bond is paid off in 2027.

The original proposal before the school board had included a two-story addition at the high school which would have housed all of the middle school students. That proposal was in excess of $15 million and was deemed too expensive by the school board.

The budget plan was also reviewed

"We've kept the budget within a very tight limit this year," board member Kathy Sarles said.

The proposed budget of $14.4 million represents a 3.6 percent increase over this year's budget.

"The budget has no extras that aren't important to our kids' education," board member Holly Harrison said.

"We want folks to understand it is intrinsic to pass this budget," board member Patricia DiPadova said. "I think our budget reflects keeping things pretty much the way they are now."

Reasons for the increase in the budget this year include special education costs, retirement contributions and a possible decline in federal grant revenue, DiPadova said.

If the school budget is approved, the estimated tax impact is $3.21 per thousand dollars of property value. The current local school tax rate is $14.62 per thousand dollars of property value.

"There is the possibility the tax impact could be a lot less," DiPadova said.

Other articles to be voted upon are:

• Withdrawal of $100,000 from the school building capital reserve fund to replace part of the roof at the high school.

• Establishment of a fund for out-of-district placement.

• Add an additional $50,000 to the school renovation capital reserve fund.

• $20,000 for continued planning should the $10.5 million bond fail.

• Establishment of a land purchase capital reserve fund.

Residents will cast their votes 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Newport Opera House.

Newport School Warrant Articles

I was listening to WNTK 99.7 and heard a radio ad for the Newport School Tax Warrant. Some of the questions that came to mind were who was paying for the ad and do any of the people who are on the committee for the tax warrant benefit from the tax warrant increase if it passes? If the warrant truly has merit why must they advertise for the warrant? It would seem if the warrants were necessary persuasion of the passage of the warrant would not be necessary.

The ad stated that the State would be paying for 60% of the costs of the school renovations. Where do the members of the committee think the money from the state comes from? The state does not grow money on trees, it is coming out of someone's pocket.

Residents should strongly consider the impact of a possible property tax increase to their wallets with the possibility of an income tax increasing looming in the near future.