The Concord School Board is at it again. It is bad enough that examples of gross incompetence in national politics are keeping many of us awake at night, we are now revisiting another chapter in the notoriously mismanaged Concord School Board to add to our insomnia.
Without going into the details of the current troubles at the Concord School Board, I return to a previous position of mine that there is a fatal flaw in our city charter that is at the core of the problems.
Concord has a unique city charter. We are the only city in New Hampshire that has a fiscally independent school board with property taxing authority. In all of the other cities in New Hampshire, the school boards are integrated, in one form another, into the municipal government budgets.
Our city charter was altered at the behest of a small group of self-serving Concord Illuminati who hijacked a school system that had functioned effectively at educating generations of Concord children.
The chickens have come home to roost.
There were periods of stable administrations at the Concord School Board, led by competent and certified administrators. I have had misgivings in the past on the fairness and costs of a fiscally independent school board. Those issues often got drowned out by the usual chorus of teachers, parents and career school administrators. Their scare tactic is always the same mantra, “It is for the children.”
The atmosphere at the public comment portion of a Concord School Board meetings can be a patronizing and intimidating experience. Those who are brave enough to question school budgets and operational issues run the possibility of having their opinions being silently dismissed as ignorant of modern educational standards.
Enough was enough. My social conscience got the best of me and I sued the Department of Education. My case ended up at the New Hampshire Supreme Court. I lost. Not on the merits of my case but on a technicality that I suffered no harm because I did not have children in the school system. Consequently, I did not have standing to sue. I did pay property taxes. The merits of my case were never heard.
That incongruity has since been addressed and corrected. We fought the Revolutionary War over taxation without representation.
There is a remedy to regain the respect and excellence that was once a hallmark of the Concord School Board. Revisit the city charter.
It will not be easy to return to the previous system. There are entrenched interests who will oppose any integration of the municipal city government and the school board. To complicate matters, a revised city charter must be approved by our state Legislature. We all know too well how that institution operates.
Something needs to happen. The current system is broken. Scandals of incompetence, questionable certifications of school administrators and officials, and aging school infrastructure are all on a long list of issues that plague a school system that does not need or welcome more distractions.
The recent daily machinations from the Concord School Board read like a script from a Laurel and Hardy film.
A solution to our school issues is to change the city charter and return to a system that has proved to be effective in every other city in New Hampshire. Integrate the school board with our municipal government.
The results of integration will bring stability to the school board, a fairer Concord property tax system and promote a true partnership of community common goals and priorities.
If my past experiences are any indication, pigs will learn to fly before there are any serious changes at the Concord School Board.
(Jim Baer lives in Concord.)