Political ad
To the editor: Ms. Bulfinch could never be confused with a reporter, nor a journalist. She makes an excellent propagandist filling her columns with innuendo. Her typical propaganda filled blurb in Thursday's Foster's, claims contentiousness in the ORCSD board. It is nothing of the kind. The board has worked well, and hard to work in a business like manner creating an atmosphere conducive to growth of our education system. The contentiousness has come from outside forces such as David Taylor, who for selfish reasons is an enemy of education, taken it upon himself to be a bully, and thorn in the side of progress, and FORE which has done everything in their power to inhibit the smooth work of the board.
Past boards supported by FORE are responsible for not having a Clerk of the Works to protect the district during the over sized $26 million expansion of the high school, and resulting in us taxpayers spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct sloppy workmanship and poor design. The same boards, and board members, while the high school was declining in enrollment by 140 or so students increased the number of faculty by 10.
The true purpose of Ms Bulfinch's article is made clear in her last sentence. It is a blatant negative political ad against incumbent board members. If you do not want to see your property taxes continue to soar, and want to reap the fruits of the efforts of this foreword looking board, you have to re-elect Henry Bracket, and Jim Kach
Shelley Sanborn
Lee
Keep improving!
To the editor: Henry Brackett and the new board of the Oyster River School has done a great job since 2009 in moving the schools management forward and has found a great new Superintendent to start this summer. The Board has opened up the lines of communication, been open in their operation and moving to far more responsible practices. To let the old board come back to take control will put us back to the previous irresponsible spending and lack of accountability that we had for the years before 2009. The voters can't complain if they let the clock be turned back to the old days, it's up to them to keep Henry Brackett and keep moving forward.
Roger Rice
Lee
Brackett, Kach
To the editor: As a long time resident of Lee, I have watched as past school boards opted to go the easy route when it came to responsible oversight of the fiduciary responsibilities. Over the years, budget after budget, monies were allocated without a clearly articulated plan on how the spending would result in a better school for our children. Instead, these past boards seemed to follow a simplistic tax and spend approach to the budget, where more of both is better. Each one of us clearly sees the result of this in our tax bills. It seemed that this was the inevitable outcome, as a very small but organized, vocal group had become very adept at influencing the board and the budget, primarily at the deliberative session.
Clearly this focus on increased spending year after year is not sustainable, especially as student enrollment continues to decline. Equally clear, the taxpayers of Lee, Durham and Madbury have finally elected a board which has proved itself to be responsible both to our students and to our taxpayers. This board presented a budget that was lower than last year's budget, a necessary first step for a school system with fewer students going forward. Unfortunately at the last deliberative session, that small but organized group had the votes to overturn the responsible budget, and added unnecessary spending back to the budget, undermining the good work of the current board.
Remember this when you vote between the default budget and the inflated budget, neither of which was proposed by our current board, both which are higher than what the board proposed. Most importantly however, vote to continue the work of a fiscally responsible board. Vote for Henry Brackett and James Kach.
Howie Hoff
Lee
Vote for Barth
To the editor: I moved to Lee in 2006 after living in Kittery for 20 years. My two sons spent their early years in the Kittery Schools, but both have since graduated from ORHS. I have been following the ORCSD school board with growing disappointment and concern. I am dismayed to see the current board conduct itself in a less than positive manner that emanates an air of divisiveness. This not only affects the students and staff, but the entire community. It hurts as all: the children going to school and property owners whose home values will be negatively impacted when the school system is not regarded with respect.
The school board has the charge of promoting excellence in education through thoughtful decision-making, open and respectful communication and being able to view the issues at an arms length. Maria Barth served as chair of the Kittery School board for eleven years. When I saw that she was entering the realm of public service once again, I was thrilled. Many in the community may not know what a wonderful choice they have in Maria Barth. I ask you all to take a few moments to visit www.mariabarth.org. She will bring an unpretentious dignity, vast knowledge of the workings of committees and an ability to communicate with others. Most importantly, she has a solid core of values committed to public education and the skills needed to help our district prepare our children to succeed in the new world we live in. I stand behind Maria Barth with total confidence and support her with a great sense of pride in knowing her history of public service.
Blair LaBella
Lee
Deceptive
To the editor: I am writing to inform you of what I believe are the deceptive practices of OR board member Jim Kach. Mr. Kach is operating a personal web site with a domain name "orcsd.net." As you know, the official district web site is orcsd.org. Anyone who accidentally types the .net instead of .org will be directed to a Mr. Kach's site. Since he is currently on the board, this gives the impression that his personal site represents the district. The tiny link to the "ORCSD Official Site" hardly corrects the matter.
In addition, Mr. Kach's personal web site is deceptive as it represents itself as a news site ("Oyster River School Board Election News,") when it is in fact Mr. Kach's re-election campaign site, and contains no news about the district — or about the school board elections. It contains only propaganda promoting Mr. Kach's re-election. Furthermore, it is hardly "news" since it does not even contain the first return when one Google's Mr. Kach: his infamous, bigoted, disgusting twitter feed.
This is not news; it is not news about the school board elections; and it is not about ORCSD. It is propaganda promoting Mr. Kach.
I ask you to investigate this matter to see whether Mr. Kach's conduct is in compliance with board policy regarding the conduct of its members, including your own code of ethics. The current board has been convicted by the New Hampshire courts twice of deceiving the public by violating our Right-to-Know laws when it conducted secret meetings to buy out the former superintendent, and when it conducted a secret ballot that is explicitly prohibited by law. More deception is a disservice to the community, and Mr. Kach needs to stop it now. Please ask Mr. Kach to change his domain name to something more appropriate.
Ruth Sample
Lee
About Barth
To the editor: I would like to take this opportunity to show my strong support for Maria Barth for Oyster River School Board. We have known Maria since she moved to Lee. She is an extremely generous woman who has opened her home and farm to our family. When you meet Maria you are instantly impressed by her open mind and honesty. Maria is never quick to judge and always encourages people to listen to all sides of any issue. She is clearly a dedicated individual devoted to the causes of public education and the environment. One only needs to look to the town of Kittery to see what phenomenal contributions she brought to the town with her years of school board experience and volunteer work. Recently it was brought to my attention that current school board member Jim Kach's campaign website is orcsd.net. The district's website is orcsd.org. You don't need to go far to draw the conclusion that our current school board members resort to tactics of deception and it is time to draw the line against this type of behavior. Please vote for Maria Barth on Tuesday, March 13.
Selvi Lampman
Lee
In response
To the editor: Mr. Mosher may think his arguments logical, which they are not, and he omits many vital ingredients. One vital ingredient — affordable.
Can we as taxpayers afford to expand the programs offered in the high school? Can we afford to have classes such as video games with only four students? The answer to that last question is a resounding — no. This type of class is something for a club, not taking up classroom/very expensive teacher time just because the school was way oversized despite demographers projections, and has wasted space. Another ingredient — Class size has nothing to do with academic success. There is more than adequate proof of this all over the world.
Yet another ingredient — How can Mr. Mosher contest the projections of the demographers. We only have 636 in district students in the high school now.
Where's the logic in denying the declining enrollment? The first grade class that came in this year is smaller than the one before it, and based on current preschool students the one to enter next year will be smaller than the one this year.
Uninformed comments are hardly grounds for an argument.
Arthur Bradbury
Lee
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