From: Howard Colter, Superintendent
Date: 11 March 2010
Subject: Meeting with Durham Town Council re: Resolution 2010-02
This memo is my attempt to summarize a meeting that took place at the SAU earlier this week. I called for this meeting after receiving a resolution approved by the Durham Town Council related to the school district.
I was joined by Todd Selig (Town Administrator), Gail Jablonski (Durham Business Manager), Neil Niman (Durham Council Chair), Doug Clark (Durham Councilor), Jennifer Reif (ORSB Chair), JoAnn Portalupi (ORS Vice-Chair), Jocelyn O'Quinn (ORSB), and Blaine Cox (ORCSD Business Administrator).
The purpose for this meeting was to learn from the Durham Town Council the objective of the resolution and what, if anything, is being requested of the school in order to provide information to the Board for future discussion.
Specific to the resolution, we heard that the Durham Town Council joins some number of citizens in questioning the expenditure of district resources at the end of the 2009 fiscal year on technology equipment when those funds could have been returned to the three towns to offset future tax increases. This was coupled with the fact that the equipment that was purchased (computer file storage hardware) had been rejected by voters as part of a Technology Improvement Plan warrant article in March of that year.
Messrs. Niman, Clark, and Selig also expressed concerns not specifically contained in the Town Council Resolution. In short, these issues included: communication, credibility, reassessment of educational direction, public perception, and fiscal responsibility. We heard that the drafting of this resolution was made in part to start a broader dialogue with the School Board.
The meeting lasted about one hour and fifteen minutes. I stressed that the Town Administrator and representatives of the Durham Town Council should feel welcome to attend a School Board meeting to present their resolution.
Regarding details listed in the resolution, I recommend that Business Administrator Blaine Cox draft a response to the resolution on your behalf. This letter would be discussed at a board meeting and subsequently be sent to all three governing towns.
- Howard Colter
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Link to Town of Durham resolution - http://www.ci.durham.nh.us/generalpdfs/Res_2010_02.pdf
Hurray! Finally some accountability being asked for. I will never vote in favor of ANY expenditure that the ORSB requests until such time as they are no longer able to reassign funds in whatever manner they choose. When the public approves funds for a specific purpose it should net be legal for them to move those funds into another area of expense.
ReplyDeleteWhat part of "rejected by voters" does Howard Colter not understand?
ReplyDeleteWho made the decision to move the funds to cover TIP items? Was it Howard Colter, Blaine Cox, or the School Board?
ReplyDeleteMy guess is Blaine. The board NEVER voted on anything remotely related to what is described in the letter regarding moving funds around. In fact, you see Henry Brackett question this multiple times!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this! No one can say this is opinion. This is right from Mr. Colter's mouth!
I heard multiple discussions at board meetings where members were questioning whether unused funds could be moved to another area. I never heard a vote or a definitive answer to the question. It is time for an answer.
ReplyDeleteThe board never voted because the amount didn't reach the amount needed for board approval.
ReplyDeleteI watched the meeting, looked up the minutes. The idea of spending this money was presented to the board, but never brought back to them again.
The voters said no, now Colter says he has the right to say yes. This may be legal, but it is far from ethical or right.
Why are we being asked for vote for TIP items if they are going to spend as they please? What is to say they don't promise it is for X but buy Y?
Where is the ethical management of our district.
Colter needs to go, for more reasons than this, but please know he needs to go.
Who on earth was on Colter's hiring committee? Who is responsible for that first bad decision?
ReplyDeleteThe voters said no to a huge spending proposal - of which was a small amount towards new, needed servers. This was a MUCH NEEDED piece of equipment which allows students, staff, administrators and teachers to hold information that is needed on a regular basis. How many times can the tech people for the district ask students to dump their saved class work, homework and other materials to create space on the network? Now, with the State of New Hampshire requiring all kinds of digital info (read: pictures, video, music, etc -- in other words, space hogs on a server) to house the information needed to fulfill the requirements of their digital portfolio, something had to be done.
ReplyDeleteYOu are all talking nonsense. Wake up, be educated on what you are talking about and then make rational comments. This isn't about spending money foolishly. It is about making a required purchase for our students. IT IS SOMETHING EVERY STUDENT USES EVERY DAY. In order to use a computer anywhere in any school, they need to log onto the district's network - and the new servers.
And when will the people with information like the previous posting start sharing it in a productive way to convince everyone to vote for it? If you had this information, you should have been sharing it with everyone you knew BEFORE the election. Now is too late, so don't scold people. Again, it is a communication problem. Next year, I look forward to a good campaign for the TIP. Please do a better job prior to the election. I have voted for this twice now, but I don't have details to help educate people.
ReplyDeleteTo whom ever on the school staff wrote the "you are all talking nonesense" comment. At least we are communicating. If you had been, the TIP may have passed. A lack of information creates assumptions, and the absense of information breeeds doubt. This SAU administration needs to get with it and realize they are in the job of education. Part of this education is to the public in teaching us what is needed.
ReplyDeleteThis SAU administration acts like the public is a nuisance. Major lessons should be learned from Todd Selig. Colter is not anchored in this community.
ReplyDeleteTo previous blogger,
ReplyDeleteNo matter what anyone who works at the district says, it will never be good enough for you and you probably will never be satisfied. Even if God Almighty came down and blessed Howard, Blaine and all 7 school board members, you still wouldn't be happy.
Sad.
I think God would probably come down on the side of the auditors.
ReplyDeleteWhat's sad is that asking our administrators, who make more than $100,000 a year, to do their jobs, is viewed as a problem. Sad, indeed.
ReplyDeleteMore like $150,000.
ReplyDelete