News and Views

Question 1: During School Meetings can Bow residents who are teachers or school employees vote themselves a raise or is it a conflict of interest for them to do that?

BCC Answer 1: Yes, Bow residents who happen to be teachers, school, and town employees for that matter, can do so. That is a huge benefit, but on the other hand how much they make per year (from the town) is public record.

Question 2: If question #1 is, yes they can, than do we have to right to know what percent of voters at the school meeting are school employees and their family?

BCC Answer 2: Yes you have the right to know who registered to vote on school and town meeting day. All you have to do is make a request to the supervisor of the check list or any member Bow check list representative.

IB Curriculum Question (multi-part)

Question 1. What is the purpose of IB when we already have a good American based AP Program?

BCC Answer 1. We recommend that you attend the public hearing on IB on Tuesday February 12th @ 7:00 PM at the Bow High School and ask this question.

Question 2. What does IB provide that AP doesn’t? My initial opinion in that the AP programs are more geared to providing what America needs vs the IB program which provides what the UN or UN-ized IB supporters THINK we (America) need in the world? Or do I have it backwards?

BCC Answer 2. We have posted several website links that touch upon that topic and we encourage you to read them and forward us ones you find that answer to your question.

Question 3. Agreeing to an IB program in Bow schools means an automatic compromise on Bow curriculum (literally and legally).

BCC Answer 3. Once again the legal questions should be asked at the public hearings but the published literature on IB clearly state that the is the curriculum is not controlled locally but dictated the IB governing body. This is one of the biggest concerns with IB.

Question 4. Again, if we have AP, why is Bow considering this?

BCC Answer 4. There is no doubt that the Bow High School AP program is well acclaimed and has clearly assisted our graduating seniors to get into some very good Colleges and Universities. With that said, let the debate begin whether or not Bow Needs the IB program or just wants the IB program.

Question 5. What does Bow get out of it?

BCC Answer 5. One thing is for certain the cost of the IB program is high and the Bow taxpayer will get a big bill out of it. What detriment or good that comes from this controversial, IB program still needs to be debated. BCC hopes the debate will be fact driven and not one based on emotion.

Question 6: Can we improve on what we’ve got before we implement an elitist program for 25 or so kids? My question is based on the following information from an article from the February 22, 2008 Concord Monitor that states only 1 in 4 are proficient in math:

Not only does this scream that we have issues that need to be addressed before even considering implementing the elitist IB Program, this proves that instead of focusing our energies on acquiring the newest and brightest thing out there, we need to teach our students reading, writing and arithmetic in their most basic forms.

BCC Answer 6: There isn’t much to answer when BCC viewers get their facts together. We do have to caution the people of Bow to do their homework because the IB program is not new and there are certainly disagreements that it is far from the brightest as well.

Question: Thank-you, Tom Keane for writing your letter to the editor in the Concord Monitor and bringing my attention to this wonderful website. I am thrilled with what this website is doing and I especially like the interactive nature of the website.

In today’s Concord Monitor there was a front page article about Governor Lynch’s huge cut in state budget because of the downturn in the NH economy. With that in mind, I heard that Town Manager James Pitts submitted to the Bow Selectmen a budget with an increase of more than 25% and that this budget was being chopped up into warrant articles to make it look like less of an increase. If this is true how can the Town Manager justify his job? Anyone with a 6th grade education can just turn around what the department heads submit. There real work is to whittle down what is needed and what is not, Pitts is not whittling but diddling with taxpayers hard earned money and I think he should be fired for even attempting to take us down this path in tough economic times. What is he thinking? Just because he is not accountable to the voters of Bow doesn’t mean that he can take them to the cleaners. Can you confirm Pitts’ huge budget proposal and big price tag warrant article proposals?

BCC Answer: Yes, BCC can confirm that Town Manager Jim Pitts’ original proposal represented an increase larger than 25% from last year’s budget. Your information about big price tag proposed warrant articles is also accurate. The town budget is still in the early stage of budget preparation but people like you watching the process is a big help. Please encourage others to watch both the town and school budget processes and watch for the dates of these meetings on our website. This website is dedicated to facts, so as to your questions about the Town Manager’s job performance we will let everyone draw their own conclusions to that question.

Source: Concord Monitor

Bow residents and taxpayers have one more source of information about what is going on in town.

Many elected officials recognize that there is a problem disseminating information and receiving public input in Bow. However, another group of elected officials believe the minuscule number of residents who turn out for important town meetings is proof positive that voters are satisfied with their past and current spending patterns and public policy directions. As an elected officials who believes we have a problem providing resident taxpayers with meaningful information, I welcome and support the Bow Citizens Coalition and its new website, bowcitizenscoalition.org.

What makes the site different is its attempt to provide a level of information required by residents who want to make their own informed decision. This group is taking the press releases, public policy statements and town financial statements and probing them for information that has either been omitted or misstated. That is a good thing in my opinion.

No doubt this will cause some elected officials to feel a level of distress and some to cast aspersions upon the site and particularly the members’ desire to remain anonymous. I am not that troubled by this latter issue because I will form my own judgments about the information I review. I can certainly understand why a school employee, town employee or parent would not want to subject themselves retribution and public personal attacks.

I encourage Bow residents to visit bowcitizenscoalition.org weekly to get more facts about what is going in our town.

TOM KEANE
Bow

Only 1 in 4 proficient in math - 11th graders’ results concern local officials

“It’s important to remember that the 11th-grade testing is a starting point,” said Principal Karen Erlandson. “We’re going to aim at this as a baseline and try to beat it every time we take the test.”

Only one out of four 11th-graders statewide scored proficient on state math tests taken this past fall, according to data released yesterday. Three out of four scored proficient on state reading tests.

State Education Commissioner Lyonel Tracy said the math scores were cause for concern.

“No educator in New Hampshire should be pleased with those math scores,” Tracy said yesterday at a press conference. “We need to ask a lot of questions. We need to examine the test, examine the scores. . . . But we also have to say, ‘No excuses, no exceptions.’ These scores have to improve.”

The federal No Child Left Behind law requires states to test students in reading, math and writing in grades three through eight and again in 11th grade. Eleventh-graders this year took a new series of tests, known as the New England Common Assessment Program, or NECAP. Because it’s the first time students have taken the NECAP, it’s not possible to compare this year’s scores with last year’s.

Students are placed in one of four categories based on their scores: substantially below proficient, partially proficient, proficient and proficient with distinction. A certain number of students must score proficient or better for a school to pass muster under No Child Left Behind. Schools won’t know whether they’ve made the cut until April, when state officials expect to release an analysis.

Sixty-seven percent of students statewide scored proficient or better in reading, while 28 percent scored that way in math, state data showed. Thirty-three percent scored proficient or better in writing.

Local scores mimicked state results: Students did best in reading and worst in math, while their writing scores fell somewhere in the middle. In Concord, 73 percent of students scored proficient or better in reading, 38 percent scored that way in math and 43 percent scored that way in writing.

Superintendent Chris Rath echoed other local school officials in saying that the NECAP math test seemed harder than the previous math test. Two-thirds of the questions were “constructed response” questions. For those, students had to not only arrive at the right answer but explain how they got it.

“What’s different is that we’re asking students(on the test) to think at a deeper level and not just follow the rules,” Rath said. “We need to make sure we’re (doing) that in our everyday teaching.”

But Rath didn’t blame the test for the low scores. Neither did other school officials, including Tracy.

“Our teachers set very high standards in New Hampshire,” the commissioner said. “If we look at the (math) scores and they’re not what we want them to be, lowering the standards is not an option.”

Students at several local high schools - including Bow High School, John Stark Regional High School and Coe-Brown Northwood Academy, among others - bested state averages in all subjects.

Still, Bow Superintendent Dean Cascadden said he’s not pleased with the 11th-grade math scores. Though Bow’s were higher than the state average, Cascadden said he still thinks they’re too low.

Students at several other local schools - such as Merrimack Valley High School, Pembroke Academy and Prospect Mountain High School - scored on par with state averages. “That’s not where we’d like to be, but it’s an acceptable result,” said Merrimack Valley Superintendent Mike Martin.

Students at a handful of schools scored below state averages in all subjects. Franklin High School, Pittsfield High School, Winnisquam Regional High School and Hillsboro-Deering High School fell into that category. At Pittsfield, for example, only 10 percent of students scored proficient in math.
Principals and superintendents said yesterday they plan to take a closer look at the test data to figure out which questions students struggled with the most. The questions are based on a set of statewide standards called the “grade-span expectations,” which dictate what students should learn in high school. School officials said they’ll work to align their curriculums to those expectations.

“Whatever (test) you use, you have to orient yourself to it, orient the kids to it, orient the curriculum,” said Mike Reardon, Pembroke Academy headmaster. “You have to build on what you do.”

Source: Concord Monitor

Myth: Made in the Bow Memorial School Music Room on Wednesday February 13, 2008 at the Budget Hearing for the Bow School District by School Board Chairperson Pansy Bloomfield. She claimed that the Bow school enrollment was “fluctuating and was flattening out” in an attempt to justify the repeated increases in the School Budget over the last few years.

Fact: The Bow school enrollment has not fluctuated over the last 5 years, in fact, it isn’t even flattening out. For the last 5 years Bow school enrollment has decreased significantly and projected to continue to decrease using the numbers provided by the Bow School District.

Please see Enrollment vs Staff Numbers

Flyer on Enrollment from 2002

Dr. Cascadden’s Memo about legislation affecting Bow’s school budgets.

We are asking our website viewers to catch misstatements/lies/distortions by our elected officials or anyone else who makes an inaccurate public statement and present inaccurate statements and the facts side by side in our Fact Finders Folder. We will also give the person who made the misstatement an opportunity to correct the record if they wish to do so. We would also gladly subject our website to the fact finders because the credibility of the BCC is of the utmost importance and if a BCC viewer sees an inaccuracy on the BCC website and successfully presents facts to the contrary, we will gladly take down our posting.

Concord Monitor
February 11, 2008

Police departments using Bow’s dispatch center will see their costs double in the coming year.

Facing a tight budget, Bow’s selectmen are asking neighboring towns to pay their share of costs for the dispatch, beginning in July.

“The intent was to offset the additional cost to us for providing dispatch service to other towns,” said Town Manager Jim Pitts.

The dispatch center is run by the Bow Police Department and takes calls for departments in Allenstown, Dunbarton, Epsom and Pembroke. The center is staffed by five full-time employees, two part-time employees and one 32-hour-a week position, said Bow Police Chief Jeff Jaran. The town is budgeting about $400,000 to run the center, said Finance Director Bob Levan.

Under the old fee system, the four towns would have reimbursed Bow for $79,000 of the total cost. Now, Bow will get back $165,000.

Jaran said he first examined the dispatch fee structure when he arrived almost four years ago. At the time, towns paid a flat fee.

“There was no rhyme or reason to how any particular town was being charged; there was no formula,” he said. “These towns were not paying their fair share.”

The fee did not take into account the size of the department, the town’s population or the number of calls for service, he said.

About three years ago, Jaran created a fee that charged towns based on the number of calls for service. “I knew it was a stopgap measure, but I felt was it was more equitable,” Jaran said.

After budget cuts this year forced Bow selectmen to cut services and search for new sources of revenue, the selectmen came up with the new pay scale. The new scale includes a $10,000 base fee, plus a fee for service based on the number of calls in 2006. It goes into effect July 1, giving police departments the chance to include the new figure in their budgets for town meetings.

Local police chiefs say they understand Bow’s position, but it has made their budgeting more difficult.

“With the increase, it’s difficult when we’ve been on a default budget for three years to try to get the budget to pass,” said Epsom Police Chief Wayne Preve. “You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

Epsom relies on Bow’s dispatch on nights and weekends, and its fee increased from $19,000 to about $42,000.

Preve praised the dispatchers, who take 911 calls and radio information to officers. “Without them we could be going into a situation where we have no idea what we’re going into,” he said.

He understands that Bow is just trying to raise money to cover costs. But he also plans to find out if there are other options, like moving to the Merrimack County Sheriff’s dispatch center. “We’re satisfied with dispatch, they do a good job, but we’re weighing everything,” Preve said.

Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland said he plans to stay with Bow. Like Preve, he understands the reason for the increase.

“I wouldn’t expect anything different from the taxpayers in Bow to expect us to pay our reasonable fair share,” he said.

But he, too, faces difficulties. Allenstown’s fees grew from $21,000 to more than $40,000.

“Any increase in costs is passed directly to taxpayers, and we’re already in a default budget now,” Mulholland said. If increases cause the budge to fail, Mulholland said his department could face cuts, including layoffs.

Those who want to move from Bow have limited options. Merrimack County dispatches for 13 towns, and its fees are lower than Bow’s new fees. The county brings in a total of $150,000 from the 13 towns, said Sheriff Scott Hilliard, although the county is reviewing the rates.

But Hilliard said the dispatch could not easily add four more towns. The dispatch would need more radio frequencies, which are difficult to get, and more personnel. It would also need a new terminal, which would be a tight fit in the current space, in the basement of the Merrimack County Courthouse. Infrastructure improvements could cost more than $200,000, Hilliard said.

Hilliard said he is talking to the commissioners and to the county delegation, which approves his budget, to find a solution. One answer to the frequency problem could be finding towns to sign over their frequencies to the county. Another could be obtaining grant money for mobile data terminals that allow dispatch calls to go out via computer.

“I understand the communities’ needs and hear them, and as their sheriff I’ll take their requests to the delegation and hopefully we can work together to resolve the issue,” Hilliard said.

Jaran said the state police and areas like Hooksett also have their own dispatch centers. “But the bottom line is cost and increased service drives personnel costs and everyone’s budget is tight,” Jaran said. “No one community is willing to carry the burden of costs for communities that should be paying their fair share on their own.”

Eventually, Jaran said, the solution could be a larger regional dispatch center for Merrimack County, where communities could pool personnel, equipment and technology. “I believe that’s the wave of the future,” he said.

PDF of Dispatch Fees [56KB]

We asked our visitors to tell us why they did not attend Town or School Meetings. We received 9 replies so far.

1. Bow Citizen Coalition thanks for caring. I am very concerned about how much my taxes have risen over the last 10 years. I work second shift and when the school meeting starts I am half way through my shift. People say that town meeting is the purest form of democracy but I disagree. Because of work I can’t go to the meeting and can’t vote. I pay my taxes but I can’t vote, that is taxation without representation and is un-American. Thanks Sarah

2. I am a recent widow and am just learning to use a computer. I can no longer walk without a walker and it is very difficult for me to get around. Because of my disability I vote by absentee ballot for president. The school takes up 71% of my property taxes and I can’t vote on anything because of my immobility and that just plain is wrong. Why can’t I vote by absentee ballot? Don’t tell me that I don’t know what I am voting for because I know. This took me 20 minutes to type so please put it up on your wonderful website. Mrs. RS

3. I Hate going to the meetings. Every time I vote people are looking around to see how I voted. The last meeting I went to, the school moderator gave this wonderful speech at the beginning of the meeting asking others to respect everyone who wishes to speak by not booing or clapping. As soon as the meeting started a woman gave an emotional speech supporting a spending warrant when she was done there was a round of applause. The moderator did absolutely nothing to stop the applause. The next person to speak was against the spending warrant and I think he had an amendment to lower the warrant. He was booed and heckled throughout his speech. The moderator did nothing to stop this rudeness. I was so frustrated I got up and left and didn’t even vote. Anonymous PS nice website, does this mean someone might do something about our taxes?

4. Thank-you for posting the myth folder and that excellent article on school enrollment. The flier in the myth folder brought bad memories about school meetings and the huge push to build a school. A school most people knew we didn’t need but a minority really really wanted.

I know a lot of people have short memories but I remember this school meeting like it was yesterday. A large group of people went to this meeting to vote for or against the school. After the vote was announced that the new school had failed there was a lot of groaning in the audience the voters who won the vote were good winners. I went home after the vote thinking I was on the winning side. When I woke up the next day and read in the paper that small group of people decided to disenfranchise my vote I was besides my self. Luckily their attempt to steal votes from the the citizens of Bow eventually failed but the fact that they were able to to this makes me dislike the town meeting very much. We can do much better. We should get rid of the town meeting where people’s votes are taken away. I know they can’t take a ballot vote away from us.

PS Keep up the good work on the website.

5. It’s good to know other citizens have had enough of the tax and spend that’s been going on in town. Having been part of the Bow Taxpayers for Responsible Spending group formed about five years ago to fight the school district on building an unneeded, unnecessary K-2 school, it’s high time we took our town back. Unfortunately, that is much simpler said than done. One of the biggest reasons that I know of and can personally attest to as to why people do not attend the annual town and school district meetings are that no one wants to be targeted as the one who stands up and actually says “No” when things come to a vote. You have the fear of retaliation, whether it be directly to yourself or perhaps to your children in the community…it’s very sad when you can’t speak your mind without being criticized and/or ostracized.

Some people cannot afford the bells and whistles that we already have here, let alone more - adding up to yet another tax increase. I find myself wondering why our school district budget sits at approximately $25 million, while the City of Concord’s is approximately $60 million. Are we really about a third their size? It would be nice to see our school board (you know, those people we voted in to watch out for our interests) hold spending to zero percent, or, at least as minimal an increase as possible. There are things in any budget, town or school, that are discretionary. Those are the WANTS. In as precarious an economic time as we are in right now, we should be putting any and all “wants” on the back burner, and turning our attention and dollars specifically toward the NEEDS.

In case someone has been under a rock, our economy has gone soft. Home prices have dropped dramatically, so even if I wanted to leave, I would take a bath on my property. People have been laid off. The mortgage industry itself is in crisis. The war drags on overseas, and our governor has not only spread the word to be cautious, he’s called for a total spending freeze within state government. Raising taxes in the midst of all of this is not only disturbing, it makes me wonder who I elected. I feel like I might have hired to fox to watch the hen house. Let’s bring responsible spending back to Bow.

6. Town Meeting is much more enjoyable to go to than that the School Meeting for a couple of reasons: First is the weather in March is horrible and you don’t know what to expect weather wise. I would be more likely to go to the meeting if you changed the date to April or May when there is more light and better driving conditions. The next reason is the moderator the town moderator is fair patient and doesn’t seem to have much bias in his decisions. The school moderator is just the opposite he seems very biased in almost every decision that he makes. It seems like you start off with two strikes against you if you don’t agree with the school board. I would be more likely to attend the school meeting if I knew everyone would get a fair shake at school meeting. If you look at the attendance of the school meeting I think a lot of people would agree with me.

7. I agree with commenter #3. My vote is my business and no one needs to how I voted. I think the major turn off about the meetings is the intimidation factor. Also when there is a voice vote I felt like on several occasions the moderator called the results of the vote wrong. I remember at one meeting a voter asked for a secret ballot but I don’t know the rules. That is another thing; town meeting is too confusing, all the rules is a major turn off. I am more likely to go to a meeting if I can vote by secret ballot. What are the rules to get a ballot vote? See the Q and A section for the answer.

8. I do not attend school district meeting since I work Friday nights. Also my husband cannot go and bring 2 young children. I have to wonder why this meeting is on a Friday night to start with since many people do not like to go out on Friday nights except to relax. The same goes for town meeting. I am fine with town meetings for town government. However meeting at 7pm-11pm at night in the middle of the week and having to bring again young children makes it difficult for us to attend. Why can’t both of these meetings be on Saturdays in the spring i.e MAY. Also why haven’t the girl scouts or some other group been brought in to help with watching young children using the see through small gym so parents can peek in on their kids in full view.

9. Thank-you very much for having this website. This website, e-mails, and the flyer you put out, were motivating factors for me and my husband to come out to the school meeting. I am attaching two links to articles from the Concord Monitor. Please put this in the section about how you feel about town meetings. The first article came from a gentleman from Tilton who states how everyone is considered equal by NH state law when the town meeting starts. Well that certainly didn’t happen last night. The school moderator is a dictator, he couldn’t even follow the rules published in the Bow town report . When there was a voice vote he declared the side with less voters the victor, he wouldn’t even allow a standing vote because he knew he would be proven wrong by a large margin.

The moderator allowed the school board to rebut taxpayers even though the school board members had already spoken to the issue and by rule they should wait until other finish speaking. The inappropriately labeled attached Concord Monitor article “Rambunctious Voters Boost School Funds” should have read “Bow Voters Cut School Budget in Spite of Biased Moderator”. I feel so sorry for Mr. Mosher - he tried so hard to get the moderator to play by the rules. I would write a letter to the editor but it too afraid of retribution. Mr. Mosher mentioned he had kids in the Bow school system, please let the people of Bow know if Mr. Mosher or his children are subjected to any retribution. Such unconscionable acts will outrage the community.

Source: Rambunctious Voters Boost School Funds
Source: Don’t Forget to Vote