Brueggemann for School Board in Zone B
Don Brueggemann is exceptionally qualified to serve on the Concord School Board. He believes in bringing all parties together to solve problems with transparency and consensus. Don has great skills and deep experience, having served in the state legislature for six years, as a board member of the NH Community Loan Fund for 15 years and as manager of The Works for more years than I can count. Don’s daughter is a product of our public schools. He has chosen to retire here. We would be lucky to have him on the board!
His opponent in a recent Concord Monitor article implied Don didn’t have enough experience and was running because of one issue — the proposed changed routing of school buses down his quiet, leafy street (with no sidewalks) in the South End. It felt like a cheap political shot. First, I would be concerned, too, if I found out the school board, without talking to most of the affected residents, abruptly changed a 55-year-old, safe (no accidents) bus route system at the middle school and planned to send buses 78 times a day, for nine months of the year, down my narrow streets.
Second, this comment illustrates a dismissive attitude among some board members that communicates, “Your opinion doesn’t matter, and we know best.” I have observed some members rudely shut down testimony; they don’t often answer emails and letters; they lose petitions and they have scorned concerns about preserving a quiet neighborhood.
Don would never disrespect people or their views, even when they differ from his own. He is committed to an open process that can achieve a delicate balance between what we dream of for our schools and what a majority of us are willing to accept and fund.