Currently, nothing prohibits a charter school employee from sitting on the school’s board of trustees.
That’s in stark contrast to what’s allowed at traditional public schools, where state law has strict prohibitions against someone who works in a district serving on its school board. A salaried employee of one school district can’t even sit on the school board of another district if the two districts are in the same school administrative unit.
House Bill 1480 would change that, disallowing employees from serving on a charter’s board of trustees. (The bill currently on file would allow for teachers to serve, but its sponsor says that’s a drafting error.)
Rep. Victoria Sullivan, a Manchester Republican – and staunch school choice advocate – is sponsoring the legislation. She said she’s talked to several people in the charter community who worry about this.
“People just really thought it was a conflict of interest,” Sullivan said.
Matt Southerton, president of the New Hampshire Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said that by his count, at least eight of the state’s 26 charters allow the practice. In most cases, it’s teachers serving on boards.
“Generally, I don’t think it’s a healthy practice,” Southerton said. But he also said he worried about “unintended consequences” that could come from the bill’s implementation.
“If we change the law now, what do we do with all the people that sit on those boards?” he said.
Sullivan’s bill would also require that the parent representatives on a charter’s board be elected by the school’s parents. Right now, board members are typically appointed by other board members and the administration.
That part of the bill is partly inspired by Sullivan’s own experience at the Founders Academy, a Manchester charter school where she is a parent.
Three board members quit in unison on Jan. 10, citing frustration with how the administration was handling parent and teacher complaints.
“Since having been appointed to the board in June, it has been discouraging to witness the concerns brought forth by parents and teachers and the lackluster, if any, response to those concerns,” one board member, Maureen Anson, wrote in her resignation letter.
Of the four remaining voting members of the board, one is a member of the administration. The school did not return a reporter’s calls Thursday.
“Founders is not the only school that struggles here,” Sullivan said. “Parents deserve to have who they want representing their interests on the board.”
(Lola Duffort can be reached at 369-3321 or lduffort@cmonitor.com.)