News and Views

To Mr. Paul Revere and the Bow Citizens Coalition,

FACT: The Bow High School teaching staff currently has 12 members with MA +30 years experience, 5 with MA +15 years experience, 26 with MA + some years experience, 4 with BA +30 years experience, 5 with BA +15 years experience, 13 with BA+ some years experience, a Principal and Assistant Principal with at least an MA + some years experience each I would guess and a Superintendent with a PhD + some years experience. That makes a total of 68 educators (of 100 +/- total staff at BHS) for 617 students which is roughly 9 students per educator.

FACT & QUESTION: Why can’t these 68 educators with their credentials and levels of experience that are also very well paid, I might add, to the tune of $4.8 million plus in wages and benefits (68 educators for $3,387,555 in wages & $1,364,146 in benefits) budgeted annually for Bow High School, develop a program to challenge all our students (and to supplement the current AP program for our brightest students) at Bow High School? That could/should be “the best thing since sliced bread” and a “slam dunk” all in one for the taxpayers and students I would think?

QUESTION: Why is it necessary to spend all this additional money outside of Bow on an IB Programme to challenge our students globally when we supposedly have all this expertise right here in Bow, NH USA already? This really makes you wonder if we are currently getting our money’s worth from our tax dollars if our educators cannot currently challenge our students?

QUESTION: What is this IB Programme really costing us, not just the obvious cost which they frequently refer to but all the incidental hidden costs like substitute teachers to cover the ones that go out for training for example? Do our current students learn or benefit from these substitute teachers, confusion and lost time in the classroom while our paid educators gallivant around the country being trained in this IB Programme??

QUESTION: Why are we currently focusing on the application process to this IB Programme of progressivism, beliefs, values & theory of a global society and not on the basics of knowledge like reading, writing, English language, geography, math, science and American History? Why isn’t a rigorous curriculum of education already in place in Bow High School?

QUESTION: How do the teachers at the BES and BMS feel about having most all the money budgeted for “professional development” in the school district being gobbled up by the travel and training expense involved with the Bow High School IB Programme and application process? Does this jeopardize or affect the education of these younger students?

QUESTION: How does an IB Programme like this challenge our bright students in the multiple tier level classroom system now in place at Bow High School where you have varying degrees of learner abilities in the same classroom? Will this IB Programme just add more confusion? Why aren’t we challenging all our students at all levels?

MY OPINION: All Bow students need to have a solid well rounded academic/knowledge based education and that is what the taxpayer is responsible for supporting with their tax dollars, not this global fluff.

MY OPINION: Stop this IB Programme nonsense!

Rick Hiland
Bow

Question: I believe people need to be educated that the ONLY item that affects the amount of their tax bills is how much the town spends. If we all get our houses reassessed and everyone’s value drops 15% or 20% the tax rate will just go up to compensate for the drop in revenue. I have heard for years people saying how the increase in property values have increased their taxes, not true.

BCC Answer: We couldn’t agree more with our educated viewer.

Question: Based on the BHS administrator report for March is this a done deal? What was the purpose of the public forums? To say here you go, this is what we are doing and as part of the application process we just have to prove that we presented it to the public? Don’t we get a say or vote about this?

BCC Answer: No, this is not a done deal, as getting accepted to the IB program is a multi-year process and the community needs to show support. So far the school board and school officials have run a stealth campaign to get IB approved. Public hearings began last month and there was a significant amount of resistance to the IB program at both public hearings. Regardless of the public resistance and a difficult economy the Board school board spent taxpayer monies to apply to this expensive and controversial program. The purpose of the public forum was to get public feedback but school board chair only heard one side of the public discussion, in fact, she calls those who are against the IB program a “sub-group”.

If there is a public outcry against the IB program or if there is no financial support for the program the IB people will not accept Bow’s application. The first step to show the IB program is to elect School Board Candidates that run as anti-IB candidates. The second step is to write letters to the editor to express your opinion. The larger the public outcry the larger the likelihood that Bow will not be accepted to the program.