Educational Test Scores In Milford Continue To Stifle The BOE

Brian Mcready of the NH Register asked a question on Facebook. He said: "Milford's 10th graders rank last in math, second to last in science, and reading, and 20th out of 24 in writing on the CAPT, but the city spends the 4th highest for education compared to 24 comparable sized communities, and is dead last in instructional hours. What do you think about that?" Since not all of you have Facebook, I thought it proper to share my answer here so Parents, Kids, and Taxpayers know where my thoughts on education are.
My answer to Brian....

The last two Superintendents did a terrible job, things started to go down hill when the Republicans cut funding to our schools to keep up with the demands made by the local teachers unions. Right now, there seems to be a disconnect between Republican conservatives and the Teachers unions. Until this stalemate is broken we can expect more vindictive cuts to education. Because of our leadership crisis in Milford, the kids suffer while the adults argue and fight with one another. The solution is simple to me, but my opponents have their own bizarre view.

My approach to solving our education problems is to first get the finances of the schools in order. Right now, teachers want to keep their jobs, parents and kids want a quality education and taxpayers do not want more taxes. One approach would be to call an educational crisis meeting, whereby the Teachers Representatives, Taxpayer Advocates and the PTA decide on a mutually agreeable course of action. Reaching a compromise that we can all live with is essential if we are going to put an end to the Bickering and vindictiveness of the Republicans, and many Democrats I am sorry to say. The failures are clearly embarrassing and rather than start a blame game we should be addressing the root causes of these problems and working with the very talented teachers that we have, who get results, to share in their secrets. It may even be in this schools best interest to hold after school workshops and contests to help and encourage our kids to be successful. The city has the money, they just chose to waste it in every way but the correct way. To elaborate on some of this waste, 1.5 Million for a police substation we do not need, Four Million for a Firehouse that could have been built for 1.0 Million, 500K in fee waivers, Money for trash a museum, Veterans exemptions from interest and penalties on their delinquent taxes.. etc.. etc.. This issue is more to do with immaturity and spite by those in charge. It is very sad to see.

Budget Cuts In Education Fills House, Simon Lake On Cutting Block

Last night at 7:00P.M. Acting Superintendent of schools Cummings, put on a public presentation to an auditorium filled with with parents. Usually these events are at city hall, but this year there was so much anxiety over over kids being affected with moves, busing issues, mega schools and the like the event had to be put into the auditorium.

Sadly I arrived a little late, and for the first time in my memory I was told by the Fire Marshall "the auditorium is full you must go upstairs to the overflow area." The overflow area had about 20 people there, and after Mr. Cummings presentation I was able to gain access to the auditorium where Steve filmed some of the highlights of the meeting.

In attendance were all the major media networks, all the local papers and about 1,000 people from our community most of which were teachers, community leaders and parents. The tone of the audience was mostly directed to the Board of Education who was on-stage taking public questions.

The general public balked at the continuous problem of year after year cuts in the school system due to the education budget going up each year. Some parents just wanted stability for their kids and felt the school board was not doing enough to deliver on the promises they made during their campaigns.

Mark Stapleton said "that the Board of Education is at the Mercy of the Board of Alderman and can only work with the money they approve," he directed the audience to "take their concerns to the Board of Finance and the Board of Alderman to have the funds restored."

Under the present budget Mr. Cummings recommended his Fourth proposal that would result in closing Simon Lake School. This notion, or idea irked many kids and parents who said they "loved" their neighborhood school.

Acting Superintendent Cummings assured the audience that despite the closing he would ensure that "AP classes would not suffer.. and overall class sizes for all students would not be significantly affected" but warned that any "further cuts by the board of finance would negatively impact teacher jobs and the quality of education in Milford."

The video below is some of the highlights filmed by Steve Borer of the Milford Independent Party.



Some asked for my thoughts so here they are...

Milford Legislators Under Pressure To Save Teachers

Yesterday, I was out dropping my step daughter to baseball practice. While completing my sponsorship donation to the little league, I was approached by a young gentleman and his mother.

The young man was armed with a petition in his hand and was remarkably upset that his favorite teacher at school was told she may not have a job next year. Accompanied by his mother, we discussed his concerns directed at mayor Richetelli. His story was heartfelt, and the amount of money requested small so Terri and I both signed his petition. At this point I felt honored to express my support of our town teachers and I indicated my opinion about the whole unfortunate situation.

To explain my view I will first remind the people of Milford, that our state has found over a Million Dollars for a boardwalk, money for random parks on bridges, expensive clocks, 60+ thousand to move a scaffold for a party at the Capitol, and money for Tax Exempt church schools, but so far nothing from the state to close what I believe to be a one million dollar gap to save the jobs of apx. 200 teachers.

Milford has several representatives, and the Almighty "Speaker Of The House" AKA Gubernatorial candidate in 2010. I suppose our energy in closing this gap should be directed toward the person who has the most authority in our district Speaker Amann. My personal belief is, that other influential House Speakers have been able to accomplish a great deal for their home towns by way of their authority, whereas Amann has fallen embarrassingly short in delivering us the funds.

With all the money spent in town over the last several years you would think that it would be possible to close a simple one Million dollar gap to save 200 jobs. The petitions are now circulating and the heat is on all our elected leaders to save 200 jobs. Should Amann alone fail in his quest this will mark 250 lost jobs at Bic in his district and now 200 more in the school system.

Anyone truly interested in saving the teachers of our town should direct their attention to our legislators as I believe the city has laudably exhausted it self in making cutbacks to the present budget.