Educational topics dominate Ward 6 community discussion

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Ward 6 residents gathered on Candia Road for a spirited discussion on Wednesday night in a town hall-style forum hosted by Ward 6 resident Dan Mowery.

The event, which focused largely on education, invited Ward 6’s local elected officials to answer questions from Mowery and an assembled crowd of just under two dozen people. Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais was joined at the head of the room by State Senator Victoria Sullivan, Alderman Crissy Kantor, State Representative Larry Gagne and Dan Bergeron, who serves as a State Representative and Board of School Committee member for Ward 6. Bergeron arrived late, almost immediately after Mowery told the audience that he had been invited to the meeting and did not show, indicating that he did not care about the voters of Ward 6.

Board of School Committee Vice Chair Jim O’Connell was in the audience to also provide feedback, with O’Connell and Sullivan challenging each other on a variety of topics. The first item where they disagreed was funding of the first phase of the Manchester School District’s facilities plan. O’Connell stated that funding to repay bonds needed for the first phase come from state aid and there are expendable trusts available to fill in gaps if state aid formulas change in future reasons. Sullivan was skeptical of this, fearing that taxpayers would have to fill in those gaps in the future, adding to burdens she believes are already making it difficult to recruit new residents to replenish New Hampshire’s population. O’Connell replied that while he understood the plight of taxpayers, Manchester’s public school district is not receiving the funding it needs to remain competitive with other school districts in the state. He also noted that the district has closed a pair of schools in the last two years.

Kantor brought up concerns over the cost and efficacy of modular classrooms being used during the facilities plan, noting reports of a modular classroom where the heat went out earlier in the day. O’Connell said he had heard about that and that the temperature went down into the 60s within the modular, but that it was fixed later.

There was also disagreement with the need for the facilities plan as the district has lost 2,500 students in the past decade and 1,600 since 2019. Ruais said that loss has levelled off, with only about 75 lost this year, although he also noted that he would have opposed the first part of the facilities plan if he were on the board at the time it passed, but it should be seen to completion now that it is a reality.

Sullivan and O’Connell also disagreed when it came to how welcome parents were in the Manchester School District. Sullivan stated that before she took her children out of the school district, parents were made to feel unwelcome if they had beliefs that countered school district policies. O’Connell explicitly countered this viewpoint, stating that often schools are eager to obtain parental volunteers but often parents cannot be enticed to volunteer for school events.

This point led to another topic: parental rights regarding a student’s gender identity. Sullivan and former Ward 6 Board of School Committee member Ken Tassey felt that the district’s policy regarding information volunteered by students was inappropriate and harmful, citing pending legislation in Concord to prohibit schools from keeping information from parents as well as lawsuits that arose related to the district’s decision.

One more topic discussed at length during the meeting was Education Freedom Accounts, a Republican initiative in Concord seeking to providing tuition assistance for families to schools other than their local public school.

Sullivan said she was working on a pair of bills relating to the concept and Gagne said public schools oppose them due to fear of competition. Tassey felt that they’re a symptom of underperforming public schools and would not be needed if proficiency scores improved.

Former Board of School Committee Member and Alderman Rich Girard spoke at length on several of the financial issues, ranging from alternative schools that can be accessed by Education Freedom Accounts to what he saw as fiscal mismanagement on the part of the Manchester School District to what he saw as greater efficiency within private schools.

He openly questioned the need for any new schools as well as the educational impact they’ve had in other communities after they were built, and also believed that voters see the Board of Mayor and Aldermen as not holding the Board of School Committee financially accountable, particularly regarding the land swap on Tuesday that allowed the continuation of a new Beech Street Elementary School.

“I think it’s definitely going to be an election issue,” said Girard regarding the school district’s budget and other related projects. “People are not happy with the spending.”

Following the event, O’Connell said he was happy to meet with constituents to hear their views and share his in return.

“When you get people with very strong opinions in a room together where everybody’s just not saying yes, in the end you have to ask yourself if you believe in democracy or not,” said O’Connell. “I came to America 30 years ago and I love the American dream, I love democracy and people coming to a forum like this and getting the opportunity to speak. Eventually the best ideas and thoughts come forward.”

Mowery was a participant as well as a moderator in the event, speaking about the need to reduce government spending. He was also satisfied with the format, voicing frustration with only being able to speak for three minutes at Board of Mayor and Aldermen meetings. He says another meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 19 and more meetings are needed to help residents share their ideas.

“You got to get community people together. If you don’t know who your neighbors are, you’re not doing your job,” he said. “We all need to get together and figure out what our problems are. Ever since COVID, people have been staying away.”