Fosters Opinion: ORCSD coverage

From the July 2, 2011 edition of Fosters Letters to the Editor:

ORCSD coverage

To the editor: Thanks for your coverage of the ongoing controversy in the ORCSD.

In particular, I read with interest recent letters from M. Gooze, T. Bebbington and M. McClurken. I agree with Gooze's assessment that the ORCSD is an excellent one. Bebbington claims that the School Board is acting as a body with free and open discussions without an agenda and implies that the resignations of three excellent administrators was coincidental. McClurken points out that elections have been held and that the community elected the current board.

Certainly, improvement should be strived for in our district. However, it must be emphasized that none of the newly elected board members ran on a specific platform of changes they supported. We still have no explanation from the board for their rejection of a principal brought forward after an extensive search nor their distaste for a highly regarded superintendent. We have heard nothing from the board regarding their education philosophy.

The election did not give the board the mandate they think they have to take actions of this significance. Actions like these and changes in the direction of the ORCSD require extensive community input. I hope that the board begins to show us this respect.

In fact, I voted for the most recently elected board members. Their recent decisions do not reflect their pre-election comments and I certainly do not support the pathway they are moving down.

Kenny Rotner
Durham

Fosters: OR board approves $185g for superintendent costs Also appoints exiting director of instruction as interim superintendent

New article in Fosters discussing the results of yesterday's board meeting:

OR board approves $185g for superintendent costs Also appoints exiting director of instruction as interim superintendent

By RONI REINO rreino@fosters.com Friday, July 1, 2011

DURHAM — Oyster River School Board members voted to approve the use of $185,000 to pay for the payment of the superintendent's contract, legal fees and consultant fees, while appointing the exiting director of instruction the temporary interim superintendent.

At a special meeting Thursday, five of the seven board members were present to discussion and act on how much to spend on superintendent Howard Colter's contract and additional fees.

Members Henry Brackett, Ann Lane, Jim Kach, Megan Turnbull and Krista Butts were present for the meeting.

No member had any comment to discuss the expenditure of funds to cover the newly signed contract, legal fees or "consultant fees incurred on the negotiated contract." All voted in favor of the motion to authorize the business administrator to use funds from the unspent fund balance from the closing fiscal year.

Chairman Brackett said the exact cost of each item will be released today as part of the agreement with Colter's attorney and the school board's attorney. [read more]

At the end of the article, news of next steps regarding the appointment of an interim superintendent to relieve temporary interim, Meredith Nadeau:

School Board members are also expected to meet at 9:45 a.m. today in conference room C-120 at the high school to conduct an interview with an interim superintendent candidate.

[School Board Chair Henry] Brackett said he hopes by next Tuesday or Wednesday the board will have a candidate to present to the public and possibly appoint to the post.

Fosters Opinion: A Challenge

Letter to the Fosters Editor submitted today in response to Laura DiMeglio's recent opinion piece featured on page B2 in the June 29, 2011 edition of Fosters Daily Democrat:

A challenge

To the editor: I'm writing in response to Laura Dimeglio's community commentary in Fosters on Wednesday June 29. I challenge her to provide objective evidence that Oyster River is an excellent school district. Everyone knows how she feels about it — but why not give us some facts?

Oh, I forgot, Laura Dimeglio doesn't believe in assessment!

I think that the teaching staff and administration have been teaching to elevate student self-esteem rather than setting high standards and teaching to achieve a high level of measurable academic performance. Sure the students love the teachers — but is that what taxpayers are paying a premium price for?

The last two School Board elections were fair and open, and to call Megan Turnbull a liar is disgusting. However, the rude, over-the-top language of Laura Dimeglio may indicate that the old guard has finally realized that the inmates are no longer running the asylum, and it's driving them crazy.

Mike McClurken
Durham

A Note from Roger Speidel

This note was sent to me asking to be published on the blog...

During the public comment segment of the June 15 school Board meeting the Board was attacked viciously for their decision to buy out Howard Colter’s contract. This was done by an extremely vocal minority accompanied by energetic clapping and jeering.

We, the majority, can no longer be silent. Our role must be to support the School Board with facts.

When the vocal minority says this Board is going to destroy a great school system, the facts do not support greatness when it’s related to the Oyster River School District.

For example: this year in the NECAP tests Oyster River ranked 18th in a State ranked 28th in the Nation educationally (bottom half). One of Oyster River’s elementary schools ranked 60th. That’s hard to believe. Do you know what that augurs for the future? People tell me that Oyster River was always first or second in the past.

In the AYP testing for the past 2 years, Oyster River failed to achieve the required proficiency in both reading and math. This relegates Oyster River to the status of a DINI system; a District in Need of Improvement. Seventy-five school districts in the State did achieve the required proficiency in the AYP testing.

Each year in the State of New Hampshire 3 schools are selected as “Schools of Excellence”; 1 high school, one middle school, and 1 elementary school. For 2011 the ratio of teacher to students in the 3 Schools of Excellence is 1 to 17.9. The Oyster River Schools; 1 high school 1 middle school, and 2 elementary schools have a teacher/student ratio of 1 teacher to 12.9 students and they are not at the top.

It requires Oyster River 159 teachers to teach its 2050 students. The 3 Schools of Excellence can teach 2050 students with 114 teachers, 45 less than Oyster River and do it with excellence. Our budget is bloated because our staffing is bloated. 73% of the school budget is salary and benefits.

The teacher/student ratio at Oyster River Middle School is 1 teacher to 11 students and the administration wants to add 3 more teachers there.

In the past 10 years Oyster River’s per pupil cost has gone from $374 over the State average to $3472 over the State average, a 1000% increase. And while the school budget was skyrocketing, the number of our seniors going on to 4 year colleges did not increase one single percent. It remained in the low 70’s. At the same time, Bow was sending 85% of it’s seniors on to 4 year colleges and doing it for $3,000 less per student per year.

The last year that the State Department of Revenue broke equalized local school tax out separately, Durham, Madbury, and Lee had 3 of the 4 highest tax rates in the State in towns over 7,000 in population.

In the US News and World Report study of the “100 Best High Schools in America” (none in New Hampshire) the number 2,3, and 4 schools in the Nation have a average teacher/student ratio or 1 teacher to over 20 students and they spend from $3,000 to $6,000 less per student per year than Oyster River.

A massive boondoggle to the taxpayers was the renovation of the High School. It was designed to accommodate 880 students and presently the high school has less than 700 students and the enrollment projections show that the high school enrollment will drop below 600 in the future. To fill up space in the high school, Barrington students are being brought in, each at a $6,000 discount....not a good idea.

All these things occurred under the aegis of the defeated and former board members who are making the most noise now against the present School Board. The last five years were also under Mr. Colter’s watch.

Now, what to do? We must become the vocal majority. The School Board made a wise and courageous decision on June 15 and we have to vigorously support them as they work with the new opportunities that are open to them.

We can do this by attending Board meetings, speaking at Board meetings, (I intend to speak at the July 20 Board meeting), sending letters to Foster’s, doing research, campaigning for the Board candidates (coffees, signs, work the polls) and bringing new people to our meetings.

We can no longer be passive. We must, both vote and act. It’s time to assert our energy and deflate the sour grapes of the defeated and former Board members and their minions.

Remember, our meeting has been postponed to Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. at the Durham Town Hall. Bring someone new with you. And keep in mind there is a School Board meeting the next night, attend if you can, and speak if you wish to add strength to our message.

See you on the 19th.

Respectively Submitted,
Roger Speidel

Fosters Opinion: ORCSD Numbers

Letter to the editor that appeared in Fosters today.

UPDATE: We have been alerted that the numbers posted are not accurate. It should state the following. For 2010, Krista Butts (1,064) and Ann Wright (1,269). For 2011, John Collins (768)

ORSCD Numbers

To the editor: Since early 2010 there've been many changes in the Oyster River Cooperative School District. The 2010 election resulted in Krista Butts (1,269) and Ann Wright (1,064) defeating David Taylor (605). In October the board OK'd creation of an Advisory Budget Committee, and in December Superintendent Colter announced he had "no interest" in renewing his contract, set to expire in June 2012.

Going into the election of 2010 everyone knew that a new high school principal and new superintendent would need to be found. The 2011 election resulted in Anne Lane (1,089) and Megan Turnbull (962) defeating John Collins (667) and Chandler Hull (667) for at-large seats, and James Kach (898) defeating Susan Willer for the Madbury seat.

After the new board voted not to accept Colter's recommendation for principal, the teaching staff, administration, students, several former board members and some members of the community expressed their dissatisfaction. The board's process to find a principal was thrown into chaos, but in June the board unanimously accepted Colter's nomination of Todd Allen, currently middle school principal, to become interim high school principal.

Last week it was announced that the board and Colter had come to a mutual agreement that his contract would be bought out, and Colter would leave in a few weeks.
Going forward, I believe the majority of taxpayers will support the duly elected board and the volunteer budget committee.

Mike McClurken
Durham

Fosters Opinion: OR District voters may have been misled

F.O.R.E. member and Oyster River resident, Laura DiMeglio, takes political disagreement to a personal level in a recent opinion piece published in Fosters on June 29th:

[UPDATE: Ms. DiMeglio requested her letter be removed - you can still read it at Fosters]

OR District voters may have been misled

For the third time in three months, I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with the Oyster River School Board. I feel that their decision to terminate the contract of our Superintendent Howard Colter, a man with an extraordinarily high approval rating among his faculty and staff, is a clear abuse of power and part of a greater plan to change our district's educational philosophy. I'd like to tell the community how I came to my position.

My experience is with recently elected school board member, Megan Turnbull. While I realize she is just one of a board of seven, I feel her opinions have been influential. I'd like to stress that I do not wish to be hurtful. I believe, however, that Ms. Turnbull was not forthcoming with her opinions during her recent school board campaign and that our district is now facing the consequences of a dishonest election.

I've known Ms. Turnbull for just over a year and during that time she has shared with me many of her opinions about education and the ORCSD. While I commend Ms. Turnbull's passion and feel she truly believes she is acting for the good of the district, I strongly believe that her following opinions should have been made public during her campaign.

— Ms. Turnbull supported promoting someone from within our district to the position of high school principal with the goal of reducing an assistant principal position (personal communication, February 2011).

— Ms. Turnbull supported a Superintendent buyout since Mr. Colter announced he would not seek renewal in November of 2010 (several personal communications, December 2010- February 2011).

— Ms. Turnbull opposes our district's philosophy of engaging every learner through differentiated instruction and heterogeneous grouping and supports tracking. She is quoted below from letters to the Oyster River Community Resource in 2008 and has expressed these same opinions to me as recently as February, 2011.

n Nov. 18, 2008: "... I fail to see how heterogeneous classes effectively engage all learners, especially in the higher level grades. I believe that a tiered system is more effective at targeting the needs and abilities of individual students."

n Sept. 6, 2008: "Tiered Classes — ... I do not support the ORCSD's heterogeneous class structure and believe it places children at a huge disadvantage when applying to college."

— Ms. Turnbull supports a change in district philosophy and the hiring of a new Superintendent that supports this change (personal communication, February 2011).

— Ms. Turnbull supported eliminating one of the curriculum director positions. Below she is quoted from a letter to the Community Resource.

n January 7, 2010: "Eliminate the two Directors of Instruction positions — Re-instate the two directors in their previous roles, and, then, eliminate any staff redundancies. These overhead roles are truly District luxuries in tough economic times."

It is possible that Ms. Turnbull has changed her mind on these issues. During my conversations with Ms. Turnbull, I also started to share some of her concerns. However, I learned more from my husband, from our Superintendent, and from my friends who are educators. The more I learned, the more I realized the merits of Oyster River and the philosophy that promotes and encourages a love of learning in our children. I learned that our experienced teachers are committed to engaging every learner. I came to the conclusion that as a parent, I value engagement over assessment. Perhaps Ms. Turnbull has also had a change of heart.

However, given that this board is responsible for the loss of three top administrators, all who value our current philosophy, and that at least two of the recent controversial actions we've seen from the board were supported by Ms. Turnbull before the election but not disclosed, I am very concerned that the next casualty will be our district's educational philosophy. I would like to hear our current board members publicly state that they support the Oyster River vision and philosophy statement that was drafted by the strategic planning committee and that they will hire a new Superintendent that supports it as well. If there is to be a discussion of change, it should happen in public. This discussion can be passionate, it can be heartfelt, it can be heated, but it needs to be in public.

I have learned a lot about Howard Colter in the past four months and am truly saddened that he will no longer be guiding our district toward excellence. If you are hearing people criticize him or our district's philosophy, please find out for yourself. Speak to teachers, speak to your neighbors, speak to Mr. Colter. Find out why our district is great. Find out what is at risk. The current school board has done Mr. Colter a great disservice. As a community, we have exchanged visionary educational leadership for an arrogant and inexperienced school board. Please help remedy this situation by demanding the transparency we were promised and by casting your vote next March.

Laura DiMeglio
Lee

Fosters Opinion: Rodgers did not have to resign as OR Principal

The below is an editorial published today in Fosters.

Rogers did not have to resign as OR principal

Outgoing Oyster River High School Principal Laura Rogers' letter of resignation should be read with some skepticism.

In her opening remarks, published June 25 by Foster's Daily Democrat, Rogers writes in part:

"The current political climate and the tension that exists in the relationship between the administration and many members of the School Board have led me to this decision. Unfortunately, there have been too many occasions in the last two or three years where I have felt that the majority of the Board has had little understanding or respect for what is taking place at the high school and the work that I do here."

Had Rogers ended her letter there, this editorial would be written. But she continued by laying blame on Internet postings:

"There are past and present board members who regularly post to an Internet blog that supports anonymous, vitriolic comments that often malign not only central office administrators and building principals ... This blog has caused some of my faculty and staff members a lot of pain and anxiety and I can find no value in it."

Rogers should not blame the Internet. Just the opposite, she and others should be thankful that the Internet provides a way to bring such beliefs and thoughts to light.

This doesn't mean all those who post through blogs and on message boards should be taken seriously. Quite the contrary, hiding behind a pseudonym or signing on anonymously undercuts the credibility of someone's comments — a point apparently missed by Rogers.

But there has been enough written on message boards and through blogs to believe that the Oyster River Cooperative School District has some problems.

Rogers, therefore, had two choices. She could look past the anonymous messages and vitriol, and address the problems discussed by responsible postings. Or she could quit.

The courageous thing to do would have been to draw the critics out from behind their anonymity and confront the problems.

Should Rogers choose to become principal elsewhere, or assume any other public administrative post, she will find the Internet ever-present and abused.

In short, the answer is not to blame the Internet. It is to use the information it provides as a tool to solve problems or to discount idle chatter.

---

While we are on the subject of Internet postings and the like, it is worth noting that Foster's Daily Democrat has received a significant number of anonymous e-mails concerning recent problems involving the Oyster River School District.

It is difficult, if not often impossible, to take much of this information seriously. Those who provide information while identifying themselves are considered as important news sources. It is their information that often leads to stories and investigations.

This doesn't mean that someone who contacts Foster's with information has to be willing to have their name published. It does mean, however, that a reporter or editor needs to know who she or he is talking to or exchanging e-mails with in order to contextualize the information they are providing.

Such has been the case with recent stories generated concerning the Oyster River School District.

Lee Selectmen Buyout Town Administrators Contract

In a Foster's article today, the Lee Selectmen in a non-public session have bought out the Town Administrator's contract 4 months early. The cost is estimated at $50,000. The reason being given is the town recently changed from a traditional town meeting to an SB2 form of governance. According to the Town Administrator, this came as a complete shock.

For more information, please see Foster's (click here).

Letter from Henry Smith

This letter was sent to me asking to be published.

Dear F.O.R.E.,

Thank you for your statement.  I am concerned as well.

You ask us to say 'Thank you' to an educator and I agree that this is important.   Our educators are a very important part of our children's education.

However, you neglected to ask us to say 'Thank you' to the members of the OR School Board for their dedication, time and service to the community as they work to restore excellence to our school system.  A good system but not excellent. Needs a lot of work to enhance its quality of education.

You failed to commend the school board members for their courage in voting not to hire a less than acceptable candidate for principal of OR High School in April, whether one agrees with their vote or not.

Furthermore, we have seen an increasingly bloated ORCSD budget over the past  several years in spite of decreasing student enrollments while witnessing the hiring of increasing numbers of teachers and staff.  All of which has not advanced the goal of enhancing the quality of our students' education or the OR School System's standing in NH.

So, if you have questions or concerns about the ORSD's decisions and / or actions, sit down with a couple of the SB members over coffee and chat with them about your issues.  They are approachable and amenable to such encounters.

Let the discussion continue...

-Henry M. Smith
-Former Chair of Durham ZBA and Town Council member, 2001-2009.
-Lecturer in French, UNH, 1988-2006

Did You Know: School Board Meetings on iTunes

Did you know that Oyster River Cooperative School Board meetings are freely available as a video podcast from the iTunes Store? Thanks to the hard work of our new District Media Specialist Kathleen Young, iTunes users can subscribe free to have new board meetings automatically downloaded to their computer or find older meetings (since March 2nd, 2011) for viewing.

Of course, there are other ways to watch the school board in action:

• DCAT Channel 22 broadcasts the most recent meeting Thursday through Saturday at 8am and 7pm and live when scheduling permits.
• Streaming in QuickTime 7 format of the past two meetings from the School Board section of the ORCSD website.
• On DVD from the Durham Public Library.

A big thank-you to Kathleen and also to HS Production Assistant Alexander Taylor for getting the word out and providing easy community access to school board meetings. Thanks!