Manchester Superintendent of Schools Thomas Brennan is set to step down this summer. After advertising the job across the country, 78 people have applied. Of those, 74 do not live in New Hampshire.
Once the applications are reviewed, 12 finalists will be selected. May I suggest the Manchester Board of School Committee send a DVD of a recent meeting to each finalist, just to make sure they understand what they are getting into?
As someone who belongs to a union and has seen contentious contract negotiations play out in the workplace, I find it fascinating the way public unions and government hash out contract deals so publicly. The media, in this case pretty much just me and the stories I write, can be seen as a problem or a tool by either side in getting what they want. Manchester teachers have long argued they have made concessions more than other city unions. More give-backs is not what the members are looking for. But school and city officials argue that holding out and forcing 160 or more layoffs could not only hurt schools and make teachers’ jobs nearly impossible, but it could also turn public sentiment against those who stand in front of the classroom.
Holding out at this point also puts allies of the teachers on the Board of Aldermen in a tough spot. After promising to give more money to schools if the unions show movement on concessions, it will be hard to convince those aldermen on the fence to shift money from city services to the one group that has decided to stand its ground in this year’s labor dispute.
This week’s column also got to note the work of a behind-the-scenes player in Manchester, Kevin O’Maley. As the overseer of all city buildings, he has worked hard to improve energy efficiency, showing that being environmentally friendly doesn’t have to be this dramatic political fight, but just makes common sense when done right.
SINCE MAYOR Ted Gatsas laid out his budget, aldermen have been looking for more money for the Manchester School District. The amount the city can give schools under the new tax cap is about $12 million below what the district says it needs to keep staffing and services at today’s level. This column reported last month that if school unions signaled they would make concessions to save jobs, the aldermen would consider shifting more city funds over to the school side.
On April 17, the Manchester Education Association’s executive board voted against a tentative agreement reached by school and union leaders.
This was not the signal the aldermen were looking for.
Continue reading
Some good advice I received a few years back about covering politics was that people never hold political journalists accountable for their predictions. If you call the race for one candidate and the other wins, well then you get to write about the upset. If you pick the correct horse, then you’re deemed a savvy political mind for properly crunching the data.
Another way to get in some “analysis” without taking on the prediction yourself is to get others to predict what happened. This week I tried just that by asking all the aldermen I could whether a tax cap override is possible.
THE ALDERMEN INDICATED on Tuesday there may be enough votes for a tax cap override. They also made clear they don’t want to vote on it right now.
Alderman At-Large Joe Kelly Levasseur made a motion at the end of Tuesday’s lengthy school budget discussion to stay within the tax cap as “a test vote.”
“I’m calling our bluff,” he said.
After a quick moment of protest, Alderman Tom Katsiantonis moved to table the item. The tabling motion passed, 10-4, with Aldermen Levasseur, Phil Greazzo, Jim Roy and Bill Shea voting no.
Later that meeting — at 12:30 a.m. — Alderman Patrick Long made a motion to override the tax cap by 1 percent. The aldermen shot each other surprised looks until Alderman Russ Ouellette made a motion to table that proposal, too. It passed, 11-3, with Long, Roy and Levasseur voting no.
The two motions will appear on the board’s agenda again this month.
The longer I do it, the more I realize budget debates are all the same. The only thing that differs is the size of the fight.
The debate over the school budget has become pretty serious, with more than 200 people showing up at a budget hearing this week, followed by a three-hour aldermen hearing about schools. This column, which appeared before those hearings, got 60 comments and drew education advocates, union bashers and simple spendthrifts to the table.
After going through a tough union negotiation battle with my company this fall and winter myself, I understood that such events have an effect on morale and condition of the workplace. When you take that idea and apply it to people who educate children all day, I thought it touched on something interesting … how worrying about your job year after year affects the face you put on for the kids each day. I also wondered is it solely up to the teachers to make their workplace better or do city and school leaders have a responsibility in it too.
The school board’s decision to pink slip 161 school staffers last week came as a surprise to some board members, who entered the chambers that evening under the assumption that the votes to pass a reduction in force were not there.
Since then, the reality has sunk in, especially for teachers, and the union leadership has met to discuss the ramifications of the layoffs. As of Wednesday, there were no plans to bring the entire union membership together to talk about concessions.
With little movement expected from either side, both school and union top officials said the vote has further chipped away at the staff’s already low morale.
“Right now, people aren’t feeling good, especially after that meeting,” said Manchester Education Association President Ben Dick.
Staff morale is “terrible,” said Superintendent of Schools Thomas Brennan. “People are very anxious and concerned about their livelihood.”
Although the deadline for laying off teachers is not until May, Brennan said his staff will soon determine how to spread the 161 pink slips throughout the district.
“We certainly have the obligation to give all the staff time to get into the job market earlier,” said Brennan.
When those pink slips do come out, they’ll be hand delivered by Brennan, which he sees as his responsibility.
“My name is on the bottom of that page,” he said.
Mayor Ted Gatsas sees the teachers’ down attitude in another light.
“It seems as though the morale in the city (employees) was the same thing,” said Gatsas. “We came to an agreement with the unions on concessions, and it seems the morale has changed 180 degrees.”
It has been so long since one of my stories a) made it on the web b) got lots and lots of awesome comments. It felt good to be back.
MANCHESTER — The Board of School Committee is again asking school administrators to report assaults committed at school by students to police.
During Tuesday’s board meeting, Mayor Ted Gatsas presented the board with a list of about 20 incidents where students and teachers had an altercation that resulted in a worker compensation claim in September. Although teacher names were omitted, a brief description of the incidents included students biting teachers, throwing objects at teachers and headbutting teachers. There were also injuries sustained while teachers were breaking up student fights.
In September, $55,151 was paid out in workers compensation claims. About half of those claims involved student-teacher altercations. Continue reading
As we approach the election, it’s getting harder and harder to decide what goes in week to week. I wasn’t even sure about the liquor store, until I went to the meeting.
Building a state liquor store at the corner of Granite and Second streets wasn’t the most popular idea to come before the aldermen this year, but on Tuesday, a majority of the board voted to move forward with a land swap that would allow the state to build a 10,000-square-foot store on the city-owned lot.
Manchester stands to earn $65,000 annually from the state over the next 25 years for the high-visibility location, and West Side residents would no longer have to go to Bedford or cross the river to buy their booze. But board members such as Alderman at-Large Dan O’Neil didn’t see the benefit to the city or the state in the deal. He and Aldermen Betsi DeVries, Garth Corriveau and Patrick Arnold voted against the project.
O’Neil told the board he had met with the state Liquor Commission and members of the city’s legislative delegation and was under the impression the state would rather buy the land than lease it.
“They said they’d be paying more for the land lease than if they purchased property,” said O’Neil. He also wonders why people heading up the highway would stop in Manchester to buy liquor when they could more easily do so up the road in Hooksett.
“There’s a lot of spin,” O’Neil said of the project. “It seems for many this was a done deal in the spring time.”
Arnold then asked the obvious question. Why exactly was the state willing to pay more for a lease than simply buying the land?
“I identified the location as a great location,” said Andy Davis, director of real estate for the commission. “Fairly early on meeting with Mayor (Ted) Gatsas and the (Manchester Development Corporation), they voted not to sell it to us because we would not be paying taxes. We still feel the location is a high-value target.”
Davis said on Wednesday the liquor store is anything but a done deal. The lease would need separate approval from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, the Attorney General’s Office and the Executive Council.
Predictions have no consequences, except when you make really weak ones. If you’re going to bother making a call, I learned, people want a strong one. Great lesson learned.
If it weren’t for the smattering of signs across the city and coverage by the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News, even a relatively engaged resident might easily forget there’s a primary election on Tuesday. So it’s not much of a stretch to predict a record low turnout: less than 15 percent of registered voters heading to the polls.
Now, here are some other predictions:
In the race for alderman at-large, Dan O’Neil will likely be the top vote-getter, bolstered by union turnout. As for the No. 2 vote-getter, my money is it won’t be Alderman At-Large Mike Lopez after his budget proposal that left firefighters out in the cold. Though he’ll likely earn a spot on the November ballot.
The Ward 11 and 12 aldermen will also continue on to November, as will Welfare Commissioner Paul Martineau. But whether former Alderman Peter Sullivan or former Deputy Welfare Commissioner Diane Guimond earns that second spot is too close to call.
In the Ward 5 school committee race, Ted Rokas will easily pull in the most votes. Voters have continually rejected Robert Tarr in the past, but when fellow candidate Tara Powell does absolutely no campaigning, it could give him an in. In Ward 8, there are three strong candidates. That’s going to be a tough one. Continue reading
I thought we pumped the crap out of the primary, but there were many people who said we could have done more. While I think they are only partially right, it did light a fire under me to kick up the city election coverage a notch.
I also put a little more effort in coming out with some solid analysis. Working on the speaking with authority thing every day.
Sure, there was no primary for mayor, considered a big driver in past elections, but by the way the mayoral race has been skewed thus far, it’s unlikely casual voters will rush to have their voice heard in an expected rout.
There were also few primary races. Not counting the poll-worker races such as moderator and clerk, there were six primary races out of a possible 30, even after the City Clerk practically begged people to run. Some people interviewed said the poor turnout was due to a lack of notice, but with daily mentions of the primary in the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News for more than a week, ignorance is no excuse.
Alderman Jim Roy said leaving future leadership up to a tiny fraction of the city worries him. There are some big issues facing this city and a complicated tax cap question on the November ballot that has major consequences for next year’s budget. Low turnout, little enthusiasm and a lack of interest in city issues is worrisome indeed. Continue reading
Predictions have no consequences, except when you make really weak ones. If you’re going to bother making a call, I learned, people want a strong one. Great lesson learned.
If it weren’t for the smattering of signs across the city and coverage by the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News, even a relatively engaged resident might easily forget there’s a primary election on Tuesday. So it’s not much of a stretch to predict a record low turnout: less than 15 percent of registered voters heading to the polls.
Now, here are some other predictions:
In the race for alderman at-large, Dan O’Neil will likely be the top vote-getter, bolstered by union turnout. As for the No. 2 vote-getter, my money is it won’t be Alderman At-Large Mike Lopez after his budget proposal that left firefighters out in the cold. Though he’ll likely earn a spot on the November ballot.
The Ward 11 and 12 aldermen will also continue on to November, as will Welfare Commissioner Paul Martineau. But whether former Alderman Peter Sullivan or former Deputy Welfare Commissioner Diane Guimond earns that second spot is too close to call.
In the Ward 5 school committee race, Ted Rokas will easily pull in the most votes. Voters have continually rejected Robert Tarr in the past, but when fellow candidate Tara Powell does absolutely no campaigning, it could give him an in. In Ward 8, there are three strong candidates. That’s going to be a tough one. Continue reading
Yikes! It didn’t take long for things to get back to their normal, ankle-biting ways here in Manchester. Even the candidates that decide to leave town are coming out swinging. I’ll just let this week’s speak for itself.
In his nearly two years as a public official, Joe Briggs has made a name for himself. Now this outspoken and sometimes controversial school board member is leaving Manchester and taking a job in Georgia.
Briggs is a Republican but bucks traditional party ideology by fighting for more spending on schools and the tax increases to pay for it. He has butted heads with Mayor Ted Gatsas many times and is one of the few people Gatsas has publicly acknowledged gets under his skin. Briggs has pushed for bringing sports to the middle schools, improving student access to technology and reducing classroom sizes. But Briggs has also drawn criticism for speaking his mind — sometimes a little too freely.
While announcing his move on the MPTV “Will & Joe Show” on Wednesday, Briggs used the term “white trash” to refer to some of Manchester’s residents. The term came up while discussing low-income housing, the city resources the tenants use and the immigrants and refugees who live there. Briggs argued there were other people besides the refugees who relied on low-income housing and services.
In an interview Thursday for this column, he elaborated: “Part of the problem — and I used the term ‘white trash’ — is they have a cycle of dependency. They use having babies as a way to stay on services. We all see it in Manchester. We have to recognize that’s an issue, and we have to deal with that.
“Some people just focused on the term ‘white trash,’ and people called me an elitist, but the people who called me an elitist are the ones who own these (low-income) properties” and are contributing to the problem.
Mayor Gatsas focused on the term in an interview on Thursday and said a lot of people called his office about it.
“After the comment he made last night about people in Manchester, the departure could not be soon enough,” said Gatsas. “Calling people in Manchester white trash is wrong … He should resign from the school board. That’s an absolutely wrong attitude to have in this city.” Continue reading
Gardner State 