The election of Selectman (2), School Board Members (2), Budget Committee Members (2), Library Trustees and other elected positions. I am up for reelection to the Select Board and would appreciate your vote.

The one election that has controversy is for School Board. Mr. Coe is a candidate for a three year term on the School Board. Mr. Coe’s wife is the Dean of Humanities at Bow High School. I have heard from several people in town who believe this is an obvious conflict of interest.

Voting will take place from 7AM to 7PM on at the fire station

Wednesday March 10th – Town Meeting

At this meeting registered voters decide the town budget and every other warrant article, one article at a time.

There is likely to be an extended discussion over the warrant to rescind any unused funds from the $12 million dollar Water and Sewer Bond.

The town budget itself calls for less spending then this year and both the Select Board and the Budget Committee are in complete agreement.

There are more then two dozen warrant articles dealing with issues like new trucks and putting additional money into the town’s multimillion dollar Capital Reserve Fund.

I suspect voters will hear impassioned discussions on the need to reduce spending given the economy, loss of jobs and home foreclosures.

Voting will take place at the High School
The meeting begins at 7PM

Friday March 12 – Annual School District Town Meeting

This is the meeting where voters decide the size of the Bow School District’s annual budget.

This is likely to be the most divisive meeting this year.

Issue 1: Will there be a secret ballot? The answer is yes. Last year both registered and non registered/non-resident people were allowed to sit together throughout the audience. The problem occurred on both voice votes and show of hand votes. There was no way of verifying only legal voters were voting. The process produce many angry residents.

Issue 2: Both the School Board and the Budget Committee voted to adopt a budget that holds the line on increased spending.

The School Board looked at current and projected declines in school enrollment and determined that a teacher reduction was prudent. The board decided to increase core class sizes from around 17 to 22. The Budget Committee agreed with the School Board and defeated several motions by committee members Dee Treybig and Kally Abrams to avoid lay offs by increasing the budget more then a quarter million dollars. This issue will be decided by those registered voter who attend this year School District Annual Meeting.

Voting will take place at the High School
The meeting begins at 7PM

Should town/school officials who get paid by Bow Taxpayers be required to present non-biased data?

Download the PTO FLYER and Meet the Candidates Flyer for complete details!

Breaking the myth that higher school taxes result in higher home values.

Here is a website where Moms gather. They are an important part of the new movement to take back our country: As A Mom

Read about some of the red flags that you might see when your school is threatened with the symptoms of nationalization and internationalization and the loss of local control.

Comments below.

Incumbent Steve Elgert was defeated by tax-fighter Tom Keane by a 54-46 despite the huge amount of money to keep the incumbent in office.

Budget Committee

Fellow tax-fighter Cindy Martin held her seat.

At the very poorly advertised SB2 public hearing SB2 hearing on April 23 Selectman Harry Judd slipped and revealed that he planned on bringing up the possibility of a Charter Commission (RSA 197:b and RSA 49 B and 49 D). The Charter Commission is not new to Bow it was used successfully in 2002 to siphon off enough votes from SB2 to prevent SB2 from getting a super majority of votes (60%)… The Charter Commission “straw man scam” was hatched when SB2 got 59% of the vote for School and 58% of the vote for the town in 2001 (60% majority needed).

Since the last SB2 vote, Bow has experienced several more years of soaring property tax bills. Town meetings have repeatedly failed Bow with poor attendance, dominating special interest, chaotic and confusing town meetings. Because of this SB2 is getting a second thorough and favorable look. The fear that the hard strapped Bow Taxpayers are starting to see the light with SB2 has caused that proverbial bag of dirty tricks to come out of the closet.

People should ask why wasn’t the topic of the Charter Commission brought up when SB2 wasn’t on the ballot. The clear answer is that there is no interest in switching to a Town Charter. There is only interest in stopping SB2’s momentum. This is a clear bait and switch ploy saying that there is something better out there and switching it back so that we end up with the same failed status quo. This is exactly what happened in 2002. What is that old saying? If you fool us once, shame on you. If you fool us twice, shame on us.

One must wonder: What if the slippery slope of putting up competing “straw man like” warrant articles at town meeting, became the norm? The likelihood of articles like SB2 (bond articles) that requires super majorities will become very difficult if not impossible to pass. Is that a path Bow wants to go down? Bow should demand that the bag of dirty tricks be thrown in the trash heap.

SELECTMEN – Choose 2 for a 3-year term

Eric Anderson
Jack Crisp
Robert Louf

TOWN CLERK/TAX COLLECTOR – Choose 1 for a 3-year term.

Jill Hadaway

TREASURER – Choose 1 for a 3-year term.

Roland Gamelin

TRUSTEE OF THE TRUST FUNDS – Choose 1 for a 3-year term.

BUDGET COMMITTEE – Choose 2 for a 3-year term.

G. James Hoffman
Cindy Martin
Dee Treybig

LIBRARY TRUSTEE – Choose 1 for 5-year term.

Elizabeth Foy

SCHOOL BOARD- Choose 1 for a 3-year term.

Stephen Elgert
Thomas Keane

SCHOOL CLERK – Choose 1 for a 2-year term.

John Rich

I am writing to you because I am concerned about the state of the enrichment programs in the Elementary School and Middle School. At Friday’s School Meeting it was confirmed that funding for DI and the after school woodworking programs are cut for next year. I think that the board could have made different decisions especially in light of the NECAP results that showed while our kids scored better than the state on average in science, the scores were very low. At the same time Dr. Cascadden showed that enrollment in the schools will be dropping by half over the next few years, spending $60K to build more parking spaces is a greater priority than funding enrichment in the early years of education. I wrote a letter to each School Board member, Dr. Cascadden and Principals Gibbens and Spofford prior to the School Meeting. None of them acknowledged my letter.

I’m not going to try to change the outcome of any of the meetings, but if you share my concern that the values shown in the budget are inconsistent with the values of at least a significant part of the community seeking academic enrichment for our kids I would appreciate knowing – it’s not in my nature to be confrontational, but it is my nature to try to fix problems that I see. An interest in the School Board is not in my future, I have enough on my plate between family and business, but I do want to do something to make a lasting contribution for our children.

I am thinking that our community needs something akin to the Bow Athletic Club for academic enrichment. BAC has been a great way for kids to have the opportunity to discover different sports and develop their athletic potential. I think it’s possible for us to do something similar from an enrichment point of view. If we pool our resources and talents, we’ll have more to offer the community, too.

I am pretty booked up with DI activities until the States at the end of this month, but email always works well for me in the meantime. If you are interested in getting together in early April to start some brainstorming I would be happy to coordinate these activities. If you’re not interested, just let me know and I won’t bother you. If you think someone else would be interested in participating, please pass around the email and let’s build up the network.

Thanks very much for your time and consideration. This could be really fun!

Best regards,
Sharon Eng