Issues

Answers to questions asked at the ORCSD School Board Candidate Forum

Questions are abbreviated.

Introduction:

My husband and I have lived in Durham since 1995. My son attended Oyster River schools from kindergarten through his graduation. I have a Master of Education degree in Counselor Education and have worked in schools from preschool to college my entire career. For the last 20 years I have worked as a Family Advocate for Head Start. I love having the opportunity to support families as they begin their school experience. For the past 12 years I have had the honor of serving on the Oyster River School Board.

What inspired you to run?

After 12 years on the Board, I had decided it was time to step aside. However, starting after the Deliberative Session, many people encouraged me to run as a write-in candidate. I decided to do so because I came to the conclusion that now was not the best time for a new person to step into the role. I believe my knowledge and experience will be helpful as the district faces a number of important challenges.

What is your opinion of student and teacher input in the school board?

As a Board Member I am always pleased when part of our meeting agenda is devoted to student and/or teacher presentations. To be a functional board, it is important to have first hand knowledge of what is taking place in the district. Examples of presentations include students presenting on their ELO’s (Extended Learning Opportunities), administrators and counselors presenting on the transition from eighth grade to high school, and teachers presenting on their sabbatical projects. On the other hand, there are policies that limit what school board members can do in their capacity as a Board member. For example, it would be inappropriate for a board member to go into a school and tell a staff member what they should be doing. There is a chain of command that needs to be followed which goes both ways. The other aspect people often don’t realize is that an individual Board member actually has no power other than what has been conferred by the full Board. All Board decisions have to take place in a public meeting, or with limited exceptions, in a non-public meeting of the full Board.

As far as student participation, Oyster River has a long history of having a student representative on the Board. As mentioned above, I particularly enjoy student presentations to the Board. I also always welcome communication from students to the Board.

How to balance academics, sports, and other extracurricular activities?

I believe the district has a responsibility to ensure equitable access to extracurricular activities, while also being mindful of additional costs associated with certain activities. For example, the district formed a cooperative football team with Portsmouth a number of years ago. Oyster River sends a set fee to Portsmouth for hosting football, but transportation to Portsmouth is not provided. I do worry about students who feel pressure to do too much in order to enhance their college applications.

View on open enrollment?

I do not believe the current proposed bill on open enrollment was well thought out and I do not support it. There are too many factors that have not been addressed in the bill. I also believe this bill would hurt smaller and poorer districts, exacerbating the inequity that already exits among school districts.

Biggest challenge facing our schools?

There is a real threat to public education at the state level on multiple fronts, but I will only address one. The way NH funds education has always been challenging for local school districts and it has only gotten worse in the last few years. More and more of the cost has been shifted to property owners through property tax.

Given that climate, one challenge is maintaining our facilities and addressing capital needs while being mindful of the tax impact. Anybody who owns a home knows the importance of maintenance and upkeep. On the ballot is a warrant article for a bond to expand and renovate our elementary schools. If it fails, the district will have to continue to apply a bandaid approach, so to speak, but I can appreciate the concern about the tax impact.

Another challenge is dealing with the added stress of day-to-day living and making sure we can address the mental health and well-being of not just students, but all of our staff. What can we do as a Board to support that important goal?

View on performance audit?

I believe it is unnecessary as presented on the petition warrant. The district is already audited annually and the Board gets the report. In addition, over the years I have been on the Board, the Board has conducted numerous surveys on various issues to determine district needs. We have also hired consultants when needed to look at specific issues.

Addition to the operating budget?

I am always so impressed with the degree to which our community supports our schools. Certainly the vote to add $519,000 to the budget exemplifies that. I do worry that some might vote down the budget as it is now presented. That would be disastrous as it would result in many more cuts than were in the original budget.

View on the petition warrant article to restrict the use of the fund balance?

I do not support this petition warrant. The reserves held are for unexpected expenses. For those who say the district could simply hold a special election: what if that major expense happened in July when everyone is on vacation? What if it is something that must be addressed immediately? Voters approved this increase in the retained fund balance in a previous year because they recognized the importance of having such a fund.

Superintendent pay?

Regarding the comparison to Manchester, a bigger district has many more district administrators, which of course, add to the cost of the superintendent’s office even if it is not reflected in his or her salary. Our SAU office is actually quite lean in comparison, and our superintendent has responsibilities that might be handled by others in districts with more administrators. The current superintendent is highly experienced and the salary that was negotiated reflects that.

Policies would like to implement or remove?

I was on Policy Committee for many years. It is a committee of the Board that meets monthly, and at each meeting a number of policies are reviewed for addition, deletion, or modification. The policies then go to the full Board for first and second read before adoption. It is a thorough process. Many policies are actually mandated by state or federal law, and even if we disagree with them, we must implement them. Recently, the state changed graduation requirements and I had concerns, particularly with the requirement of implementing the changes by fall. I personally would have liked to have seen a time frame of two years. There are some new requirements that I question, such as the changes to social studies.

Closing Statement

It has been an honor to serve on the Board and to witness the many accomplishments in the district over those years. People may forget, but we previously only had half-day kindergarten, we had no orchestra, and we had very limited world language in the middle school. We also had an earlier start time and students used personal devices rather than school-issued ones. Regarding the latter, because we had already moved to school-issued devices, we were in a much better position during the pandemic than many districts. Oyster River has been a leader in the state, and I hope to see that continue. I ask for your vote as a write-in candidate on March 10.