BRISTOL — Doubling down on their efforts to spend money voters never appropriated, members of the Newfound Area School Board and school administrators made it clear last month that their priorities override any vote by the public.
Christine Davol of New Hampton said that, regardless of the voters’ rejection of the proposed school budget for 2018-19, she knows of people who did not vote but supported spending the $712,000 that administrators had targeted for building improvements.
Sharon Klapyk of Danbury said spending the money identified in the school’s capital improvement plan is too important to ignore and declared those who opposed the spending to be “uneducated.”
Klapyk previously asked to keep her contact information private because she did not want her constituents to bother her at home during her family time.
The discussion originated from a challenge from Bristol resident Archie Auger, a former school administrator who discovered after the annual meeting that the default budget that had been prepared in case voters rejected the proposed spending plan had included money for capital improvements without voters ever having approved the expenditures.
Superintendent Stacy Buckley pointed out that there is no legal obligation for the public to approve a capital improvement plan. Typically, town or school officials preparing a capital improvement plan for long-term spending will hold a public hearing and then adopt the plan.
Contrary to general practice, however, Buckley and Business Administrator Michael Limanni maintain that, once adopted, a capital improvement plan becomes part of the operating budget. Other towns and school districts use such plans as general guidelines they review each year before putting capital items in the budget or in separate warrant articles for voters to approve. Newfound is the first school district to argue that a capital improvement plan must be funded.
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, in its recently released reaccreditation report on Newfound, commended the district for having a capital improvement plan, and it recommended also adhering to its technology replacement plan which often gets adjusted to make up for budget shortfalls or to meet the district’s tax cap.
Dispute
Auger maintains that, because voters have never approved any capital expenditures from the plan the school board adopted in May of last year, it was improper to include those items in the default budget.
Limanni compared building maintenance to the purchase of textbooks, noting that book purchases can exceed $600,000, yet they are placed in the general operating budget.
Auger had been joined by a large contingent of district voters who demanded that the school board remove the capital items from the default budget. The board has delayed taking any action, even in the face of a threatened lawsuit challenging the action.
A recent supreme court decision in a similar challenge to Weare selectmen, who placed items voters had not approved in their default budget, came down on the side of the voters, but Newfound’s attorney, Barbara Loughman, said it was entirely legal to include the money because voters the previous year had appropriated $800,000 to repair the high school roof. Although the capital improvement plan had not been adopted when the roof job was approved, she said that, having approved the repairs, other items identified in the capital improvement plan could be included in the default budget.
Auger — who, incidentally, had made the motion to add the $800,000 to the previous year’s budget — said the roof repair was a one-time expenditure, which by statute could not be included in the default budget.
Selectmen and residents of Newfound Area towns had agreed with Auger, and their own attorneys differed with Loughman’s interpretation of the law. They asked the school board to turn back the money they felt had been inappropriately included.
While large contingents had attended the March and April meetings, only Auger came to press the issue in May, and the school board rebuffed him, continuing to put off a decision.
Vincent Paul Migliore of Bridgewater advocated utilizing a provision of the law that allows a school district to hold a special meeting to settle on a budget, rather than relying on a default budget. He found no support among other school board members, who like Klapyk and Davol felt no obligation to listen to the voters, or who like School Board Chair Jeff Levesque of Groton wanted to retain some of the appropriated funds, returning part of the money this year and part of the money next year.
Levesque said he understands residents’ concerns about high taxes, saying he is sometimes unable to pay his own taxes, but he maintained that taking care of the district’s school buildings is more important than affordability.
“I understand about not being able to pay taxes, but I also understand about supporting our schools, and that is why I sit in this seat,” he said.
With the board divided on whether to take any action on Auger’s request, Levesque closed the discussion and said they would have to take it up another time. He did not put it on the agenda for the June 11 meeting.
Roof Project
The roots of the dispute can be traced back to the school board’s decision when forming a facilities committee to make its own members a minority. School board subcommittees typically consult with administrators and staff members, but the board develops the plan and maintains control of the decisions. The Newfound facilities committee left the work to staff members and administrators, giving them voting rights on any proposals they came up with. The plan that would be brought back to the full board for approval was the administration’s plan — something Klapyk noted when she first joined the facilities committee.
Apart from occasional questions from Migliore, administrators have not faced many challenges from the current school board members, unlike past years when the board took a more active part in the decision-making. This year’s board did not make time to complete the February evaluation of the superintendent’s performance prior to her receiving a raise, and when the board received an “update” on the high school roof project on May 29, administrators told them they needed an immediate decision, rather giving board members time to review the proposal developed by construction consultants Bonnette, Page & Stone.
When Auger made the motion to add $800,000 to the 2017-18 operating budget, he was acting on the facilities committee’s recommendation that the roof repairs be done immediately to prevent further damage to the building. The school board could not legally include the roofing project in its budget recommendation because, even if paid through a bond issue, the cost would exceed the amount allowed under the school district’s tax cap. By amending the budget from the floor at the annual school district meeting, Auger was able to exceed the tax cap and, in the process, increase the base for calculating the next year’s budget by $800,000.
Despite the facilities committee’s assertion that the roof repairs were a pressing need and Auger’s ability to convince the voters to approve the spending, the administration did not put the project out to bid in 2017, but it hired Bonnette, Page & Stone this year to evaluate the roofing types and costs, as well as to handle the bidding process.
In their report to the school board on May 29, BPS President Keith McBey and Project Manager Barrett Salta recommended a RhinoBond roof, at a price of $591,923, which is less than half the price of a “built-up” roofing system, whose estimated cost would be $1,367,163.
Davol, whose brother-in-law does roofing, objected to being asked to make a decision that night, saying she prefers to review material before making up her mind. Migliore agreed, asking why there was such a rush after waiting 18 months to do the work.
McBey said they need to make a decision and hire the subcontractors soon in order to establish a timeline for the work over the summer and have a chance to procure the material. It could take a month or more after deciding to get the material to have it on hand to begin the construction, and they want to complete it over the summer, he said.
Bringing up the potential for bad weather, workforce issues, and other things that could potentially delay the work, Migliore said they have to work around such problems, and they could work around a two-week delay to give school board members time to consider the options.
With administrators also emphasizing the need to get underway with the project, Davol joined other board members in approving the $591,923 expenditure with a reluctant yes, leaving Migliore as the only one voting against the recommendation.
10 June 2018

BRISTOL — The board of the Blakeley-Mills Newfound Regional Scholarship Foundation is looking to engage more alumni in both giving and social activities.
The foundation achieved the designation as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization last April, and in June 2017, it awarded the first four scholarships: two for $750 and two for $500. Currently, the fund has $20,000, and founders Paul Berton and Linda Drake Normandin, both members of the Class of 1972, say they want to get it to a level where scholarships can be awarded from the interest alone.
To help get there, they have announced a “Pledge Your Age” campaign for Newfound alumni, whether they graduated from Bristol High School, Newfound Memorial High School, or Newfound Regional High School.
The theory is that recent graduates who are bearing college costs would still be able to pledge $18, $19, or $20, while those who have reached retirement age can spare the $65 or $70 that reflects their age. Donations of that size will help supplement the more hefty contributions they hope to get from businesses and individuals who are able to give more.
The scholarship is named after retired teachers and coaches Alan Blakeley and Earl Mills. Blakeley came to the Newfound Area School District straight out of college in 1964 and remained for 37 years. Mills started out as a baseball and soccer coach but after re-instituting the cross-country program in 1976, he went on to coach more than 80 Newfound teams in eight sports.
While both men are known for their work in athletics, the scholarship is not just for athletes. Normandin stressed that anyone — even someone who is no longer attending Newfound schools — is eligible. The applicant need not be attending college, either. Those looking to go into the trades or other specialized training at technical schools, or even just seeking a certificate, also may qualify.
Berton said the idea for the scholarship came to him during the financial crisis, when people learned that the wealth everyone had been celebrating actually turned out to be a mountain of debt.
“It made me sit back and look,” he said. “Things aren’t always as they appear.”
Berton said he did an analysis of what a college education cost in 1971 and what it costs today. The median family income in Bristol in 1971 was $12,000, and the average cost for college was $2,500, or about 21 percent of that income. Today, the medium income here is $30,000 — the same amount as the average cost of college.
The alumni at the University of New Hampshire, where Berton had been a long-time downhill ski instructor, had set up a scholarship in his name, and he thought of doing something similar at Newfound. He contacted Normandin, who had completed a 30-year career in banking, ending as president and chief operating officer at Laconia Savings Bank.
“I wouldn’t have been able to go to college without help,” Normandin said about her decision to join Berton in launching the Newfound scholarship program.
Berton naturally thought of Blakeley and Mills, both members the NH Coaches Association Hall of Fame who recently had been the first inductees in the Newfound Regional High School Hall of Fame, and Normandin thought it would be another way to honor the two coaches. They, in turn, agreed to lend their names to the scholarship.
Getting the word out has been a challenge, they said. The old alumni association that used to offer scholarships had disbanded, and it took a while to pull together the alumni names, let alone finding out where they are today.
Last fall, with the help of classmate Terry Corneau, they launched a new website, www.newfoundalumni.com, in an attempt to reconnect with Newfound graduates. It has helped, but they are finding that many of the alumni have moved on and lost interest in their alma mater.
They are hoping to overcome that problem by coming up with new ways to engage others. They are asking for help in coming up with ideas for get-togethers, during Old Home Day or other summer events. They also want to use the website to highlight the stories of alumni.
One current initiative is to start that process by identifying alumni who still live in the area, who have established their own businesses and have raised families who also are Newfound alumni.
The multi-pronged approach is intended to reunite the alumni and to focus on the generations to come by helping them to succeed.
Donations to the scholarship fund are welcome, and may be mailed to PO Box 691, Bristol NH 03222.
30 March 2018

BRISTOL — Having awarded the contract for the first phase of work at the town’s transfer station to one of its own members, the Bristol Board of Selectmen publicly reviewed the bidding process during its April 19 meeting.
Chair Rick Alpers raised the issue as engineer Mike Vignale was providing an update on the project. Alpers said that, out of fairness to J.P. Morrison and the town, it was important to remind people of how Morrison ended up as the lowest bidder.
“There was no special consideration to J.P. ,” Alpers said.
Vignale listed the publications where the bid request was published, said there was a pre-bid meeting giving representatives of the various construction companies an opportunity to ask questions to clarify their understanding of the job, and explained that six bids were received — all coming in higher than expected.
Morrison Construction LLC was the low bidder, at $213,950, with the next lowest bid coming from United Construction Corporation, at $246,937. The highest bid — $293,800 — came from R.D. Edmunds & Sons.
Besides the construction work, the project budget included $10,300 for engineering, $28,850 for a new compactor, and $8,000 for electrical, bringing the total project cost to $261,100.
Morrison pointed out that United’s bid was $35,000 higher than his. “If we were $1 less than the next bidder, it might be something to think about,” he said.
Selectman Les Dion said she was “very comfortable” with that explanation, and added that she was glad the bid went to a local company that also was the low bidder.
Selectman Don Milbrand was not present at the meeting, but the consensus among the other selectmen was that the town should proceed with the signing of the contracts for work at the transfer station.
With the cost of recycling exceeding that of disposing of rubbish in the regular solid waste bin, town officials are looking at ways of keeping costs down. Alpers said they are reluctant to do away with recycling completely because it might be difficult to get people to resume recycling when the market changes, but he admitted that the town may have to consider that if the costs continue running so high. Currently, it costs $120 per ton to get rid of recyclables, while regular solid waste costs $65 per ton.
The town has started asking people to separate glass from other recyclables, to reduce the volume, and they were to visit New London’s setup because that town reportedly continues to make money by recycling.
Other projects discussed included the Millstream Park project, where various groups are looking at providing an informational kiosk, signs, and seating areas. Planner Liz Kelly said they also are considering extending the bike path that now starts at one end of the property all the way through the park. Kelly is looking into grants that might help with the project on town property where the former Millstream restaurant used to operate, alongside the Newfound River.
Selectmen also discussed the prospect of moving the former chamber of commerce information booth from the foot of Newfound Lake to Millstream Park.
Across town, Vignale is assisting with the design of a park and multi-use trail by the old train depot at the confluence of the Newfound and Pemigewasset rivers. He said there are trees that need to be cut, but taking down trees is prohibited between June 1 and July 31, so they would have to fell the trees between now and the end of May. The town plans to put up signs and construction fencing to keep people out during that phase of the work.
Vignale said plans for work on Central Street have been scaled down to make sure the work fits within the budget.
He is still looking into what should be done about erosion at Cummings Beach. He expects to recommend extending a wall and placing stone along the slope to stabilize the bank.
Selectmen asked Town Administrator Nik Coates and Fire Chief Ben LaRoche to get additional bids for the architectural and engineering work at the fire station. They had one bid, from Warren Street Architects, but town policy calls for three bids on projects in this price range — $15,000.
Coates reported that students from Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Engineering have asked the town to suggest a project they could do, and he suggested a market analysis. The students will weigh proposals from several communities and decide which one they would like to take up.
21 April 2018

BRISTOL — Setting the tone for 50 percent cuts in many of the items that had been included in the 2018 town budget, members of the Bristol Board of Selectmen halved their own compensation, reducing the amount from $16,000 to $8,000.
The highway department took the brunt of the adjustments selectmen made to bring the budget in line with what voters appropriated at March Town Meeting. The final number is 4.4 percent more than the town spent last year, but $370,450 less than what the Budget Committee had proposed for spending in 2018.
Road and drainage work have been eliminated from the highway maintenance program, and road resurfacing projects have been drastically scaled back. The road resurfacing budget was reduced from $190,000 to $64,031. Selectmen eliminated the $15,000 that was to go to regular drainage work and $28,000 earmarked for drainage at Cummings Beach. The $50,000 for chip seal also was brought to zero.
Another $9,000 came out of the highway department’s operating budget, including cutting in half the amount for sidewalk maintenance.
General government spending for computers, website, maintenance, and security was reduced by $30,000, but selectmen kept money in the budget for a new computer and telephone system.
After hitting several areas of direct spending, the selectmen turned to some of the outside agencies, reducing the town’s contribution to the Newfound Area Nursing Association by $3,400, from $33,400 to $30,000. Most other funding was cut in half: the Grafton County Senior Citizens Council was reduced from $8,500 to $4,250; Voices Against Violence from $3,000 to $1,500; Pemi River Local Advisory Committee from $300 to $150; Communities for Alcohol and Drug-Free Youth from $2,000 to $1,000; Court Appointed Special Advocates from $500 to $250; and the Day Away respite program from $1,500 to $750. Bridge House Shelter was not cut as drastically being reduced from $2,000 to $1,250.
Funding for the Lakes Region Mental Health Center (formerly Genesis) had previously been reduced from $3,000 to $1,500 by the Budget Committee, and the selectmen pulled another $750 out of that amount.
In announcing the adjustments, Rick Alpers, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, praised the department heads for the careful scrutiny of their budgets and willingness to make the cuts necessary to bring spending in line with what voters had appropriated.
17 April 2018

BRISTOL — An attempt to end seven weeks of acrimony between the Newfound Area School Board and residents of the seven towns making up the school district succeeded in bringing a calmer and more respectful tone to the conversation over the default budget, but the dispute will not be resolved until at least mid-May.
Archie Auger of Bristol said his goal in explaining why he believes the school board erred by including capital improvement projects that voters have never approved in the default budget was to have the board agree by the end of the meeting to resolve the issue.
School Board Chair Jeff Levesque of Groton proposed delaying any action on the budget until the end of May because of the number of other agenda items that need to be addressed, but Superintendent Stacy Buckley said she may be able to rearrange the agenda so the board can take it up on May 14.
“I think we can do this as adults,” Levesque said at the beginning of the discussion as he laid out tighter rules for taking public comment on the issue of the $712,000 in new spending that was included in the default budget.
Auger reviewed what happened last year, when the school district’s tax cap prevented the school board from including an $800,000 warrant article that would have addressed replacement of a leaking high school roof. Voters have the ability to authorize spending beyond the amount allowed under the cap, and Auger was successful in offering an amendment to the operating budget to add the $800,000 for roof repairs.
Under the terms of the tax cap, the authorized operating budget serves as the starting point for calculating how much the district is allowed to spend in developing the succeeding year’s budget. That allowed the school board to include $712,000 in capital expenditures for building maintenance in its fiscal 2018-19 budget.
In calculating the default budget that would take place if voters turned down the proposed budget, the school board also included the $712,000 in capital expenditures, based on school district attorney Barbara Loughman’s argument that replacement of a roof is part of the ongoing cost of maintaining school district buildings.
Auger read the statute governing towns and school districts that have adopted the Official Ballot Law, RSA 40:13, which states that the default budget is the previous year’s operating budget, “reduced or increased, as the case may be, by debt service, contracts, and other obligations previously incurred or mandated by law, and reduced by one-time expenditures included in the operating budget. … One-time expenditures shall be appropriations not likely to recur in the succeeding budget,….”
He said, “Any responsible person would have to know that $800,000 to repair the high school roof won’t appear in the succeeding budget, and it doesn’t. Other things were substituted.”
The effect, he said, is that the same items appear in both the operating and the default budget, so if voters choose not to fund them in one budget, they still get funded in the other.
“The voters have not had a chance to weigh in. The voters are left out. That’s not democracy,” he said.
Auger asked the school board to invoke the option provided in the law that allows the district to hold a special meeting to set a new operating budget rather than accepting the default budget.
Board member Vincent Paul Migliore of Bridgewater said the danger in holding a special meeting is that people who are angry with the school board might choose to cut out more than the $712,000 and leave the district with too little money to function properly.
Other discussion
Dana Torsey of New Hampton said Loughman’s argument that the roof replacement was just regular maintenance would mean that voters would have no say on other big-ticket repairs.
“Big articles are normally warrant articles,” he said. “You circumvented it. If you stay with that logic, you’ll never have a vote, because it’s in both budgets. No matter what the voters do, you’ll have your $8 to $10 million.”
Bill Gilson of New Hampton suggested that the school board adopt a policy that would allow it to include any maintenance items costing less than $50,000 in the operating budget, while anything $50,000 or more would have to appear in a separate warrant article so residents could vote on the spending.
That led to a discussion of other options, such as simply not spending the $712,000 so it becomes part of the unexpended fund balance and can be used to reduce taxation the following year.
Several people spoke of the need for the school board to re-establish trust so taxpayers will support their budgets in the future.
Loughman offered some personal observations as well as legal opinions to persuade people that holding a special meeting or suing the school district would not serve as good solutions.
She said special meetings tend to attract fewer people, so a small number of people could take actions that run contrary to what the majority of people would support. She also noted the long timeframe for holding a special meeting: between the budget hearing, the posting requirements, the deliberative session, and the ballot session a month later, she said voting would occur in the middle of summer.
As to a lawsuit, as some have threatened, she said that also could take a long time, perhaps delaying the setting of the tax rate which would leave towns in a situation where they would have to borrow operating funds in anticipation of taxes. If the plaintiffs lost and appealed the case to the supreme court, it could take years to arrive at a decision.
Levesque said he was inclined to turn back the $712,000 and wait for another year to propose capital projects.
Board members Sue Cheney of Alexandria and Sharon Klapyk of Danbury expressed concern about accepting the decision of those who voted because more residents of the school district stayed home and did not vote.
“What about the voters who want the CIP?” asked Klapyk. “I do agree with compromising, and we should be cooperating, but what about putting money into our buildings? We shouldn’t compromise on just the people that show up.”
Board member Jason Robert of Hebron called it “an amazing conversation” and said, “We want to make sure the taxpayers are respected. We want to do something to get back in your good graces, and we want to make sure we’re not impacting our students. How do we help resolve the $712,000, and how do we deal with the CIP plan moving forward? We need to do something.”
Codified procedures
Migliore offered a solution to avoid the sorts of confusion that fueled the anger over the default budget. People coming to the meetings to seek answers mistook the board’s refusal to answer questions at that time as intransigence, not knowing that the board’s policy was to allow people to speak, and for the board to discuss the issues they raised at a later time. That explanation is now included on the meeting agenda, and Migliore wanted to have that and other procedural matters written down so new board members could have that knowledge, and the board would not be improvising as it has done lately.
Levesque took umbrage at the suggestion, having abandoned many of the procedures Migliore had put in place when he was serving as school board chair.
“I grew up here, and my father and my grandfather always told me, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” he said. “I’ve been told I’m not a lawyer and shouldn’t be writing legislation. We have the School Boards Association to draft sample policies, and they have lawyers to make sure the policies are in compliance with state and local law. I appreciate that you’ve spent a lot of time to put this together, but I see things that concern me. I’m not a libertarian, but I know we have a substantial contingent in this district. I really don’t want to open that can of worms with them telling us what we’re doing wrong with rules and regulations. Why would we do such a thing?”
Migliore said having motions put in writing, for example, would avoid confusion, so board members would know exactly what they’re voting for. He cited the example of the food service contract where they had to follow up to make sure the firm was observing the conditions included in the motion that hired the company. “If it was written and adhered to, it wouldn’t have been a problem,” he said.
His motion to have the policy committee take up the matter did not receive a second, although Cheney said she would review his recommendation and might support it at a future meeting.
Migliore said his ultimate goal was to offer a policy to address the issues raised that night about setting a limit on the cost of building maintenance that could be included in the operating budget and requiring that the more expensive items be placed on the warrant for voters to decide.
10 April 2018

BRISTOL — Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. Or maybe just Reduce-Reuse.
The world market for recyclable products has collapsed, taking away the financial incentive for keeping certain material out of the landfills. In fact, it is now more costly to recycle than it is to just toss that material in with the garbage.
That was the unpleasant information that Dave Allen of Casella Waste Systems brought to the Bristol Board of Selectmen on April 5.
Allen said it costs his company $30 per ton in trucking costs to get material to the recycling center in Boston, and another $90 per ton to sort it. The offsetting revenue is $3 per ton, for a net loss of $117.
“That’s not a good business model,” he said.
Starting next month, Casella will be charging the town the difference between the company’s cost and what it recovers on the commodity market. At 300 tons of recyclables a year, that is more than $3,000 in increased costs for the town.
If the market should turn around, Allen said his company would split the profit with the town out of fairness, but he doesn’t see that happening anytime in the near future.
By way of contrast, the town’s cost to haul away solid waste is $65 per ton, making the abandonment of recycling an appealing option from a financial standpoint.
Mark Bucklin, the public works superintendent, said he would like to continue recycling for now because it would be difficult to get people to start recycling again if they were to get out of the habit now.
A temporary step would be to remove glass from the recycling material. Glass has no market value at the moment, and separating it out would reduce the tonnage by 20 percent, Allen said.
Bucklin said he could store the glass and crush it, and attempt to find someone to take the crushed material. Glass can be reused in tile for landscaping and made into aggregate for road bases.
Rick Alpers, chair of the selectmen, suggested a trial period of separating out the glass and seeing what the costs are. If the cost were to remain high long-term, it might make sense to cease recycling and simply haul everything to a landfill, he said.
Town Administrator Nik Coates had checked with other recyclers, and found they were in the same situation as Casella, so it makes no sense to change haulers, he said.
Budget
During an afternoon work session prior to the regular meeting, selectmen had adjusted the town’s operating budget to meet the new figure that voters adopted at town meeting. Faced with a long warrant carrying the potential impact of hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional spending, voters had limited the increase in the 2018 operating budget to 4.4 percent above last year’s cost of running the town.
The difference between the adopted budget and the one the budget committee had proposed was $370,450. Alpers said the department heads had done an outstanding job locating ways to reduce their spending to meet the lower appropriation, and the selectmen made some other adjustments during their workshop.
Alpers said the selectmen preserved all town employees’ jobs and the money to award merit increases in compensation, instead cutting out some new equipment purchases, cutting back on cemetery maintenance and town beach attendants’ hours, eliminating some funding for the summer concert series, and reducing the town’s support to nonprofit agencies such as the Newfound Area Nursing Association.
He said the town administrator and department heads will be closely monitoring the spending this year, and, if they can save additional money, some of the spending might be restored.
During the public comment period, Tom Keegan chastised those who proposed the budget amendments.
“We shouldn’t have to cut funding for seniors and NANA,” he said. “These cuts shouldn’t have been snuck through at the last meeting. It just isn’t right.”
Without naming budget committee member John Sellers, Keegan said, “If you sit on a committee, you should stick with the committee.”
He also didn’t name former selectman Paul Manganiello, but said, “Taking money from capital reserves isn’t right, either.”
He concluded by saying, “We better consider the people we vote in and what they really stand for.”
Manganiello, who was in the audience, stood to make it clear, “That was not the selectmen’s decision to reduce the capital reserve budget. That was my going rogue. I wanted to support the purchase of the building [for a new town hall], and I hope you’ll still use that money for this purpose.”
Sellers defended his motion to reduce the proposed budget, pointing out that it was still an increase over last year’s spending. He noted that his amendment had the support of the majority of the voters who attended the town meeting.
Keegan complained that Sellers’ motion was based on actual spending figures, rather than on last year’s budget — a perennial subject of debate between fiscal conservatives and those with a more liberal view on spending.
Conservatives will point out that a budget is a guess about what it will take to operate, while looking at the actual spending shows the real cost. Liberals will point out that staff vacancies, delayed projects, and other unforeseen circumstances may keep a town from spending the whole amount budgeted, and that unexpected costs may come up during the year, so having extra money available will allow for those situations.
When Sellers started to respond, Alpers shouted him down and quickly moved to end the public comment period.
9 April 2018

BRISTOL — Voters of the Newfound Area School District thought they had donated a school building on the village common to the Town of Hebron many years ago, but no deed was ever passed, so now they’re trying again.
A ballot question on March 13 asked for the authority to transfer the Hebron Village School to the town, and it passed, 172-85. The Newfound Area School Board followed up at its March 26 meeting, voting to transfer the deed, but with a condition: The Town of Hebron must bear the legal fees.
“The Hebron attorney contacted our attorney directly, and I don’t feel we should be paying out of our pockets,” said Chair Jeff Levesque of Groton.
The comment led to some debate among the school board members about the way the request was handled. Vincent Paul Migliore of Bridgewater said the board’s policy states that the school district attorney should be contacted only with the permission of the chair in order to control legal expenses.
Superintendent Stacy Buckley intervened, explaining that Hebron was considering an addition to the building and discovered there was no deed, indicating that they did not actually own the property. The town contacted her about it and she tracked the records, but could not find that the deed had been transferred. After that, Hebron’s attorney contacted the school district attorney.
Business Administrator Michael Limanni said Hebron officials had indicated that they had no problem covering the legal costs, and that they did not randomly contact the district attorney without first speaking with the central office.
The school board also approved a third-grade class trip to the New England Aquarium.
Earlier in the meeting, the board had reorganized, with Levesque retaining chairmanship, but newly elected Hebron member Jason Robert was named vice-chair.
Migliore handed out bracelets with the initials IGYB, which stand for “I’ve Got Your Back” — an anti-bullying initiative. He suggested that the Newfound faculty should get involved, as “it seems to have some positive characteristics.”
The school district’s contract with the Bridgewater-Hebron Village School is coming up for renewal and Levesque asked for members to serve on a negotiating committee. Migliore questioned why they would need a negotiating committee to extend the contract, and Levesque said there were some issues he wanted to address in the contract in light of declining student enrollment.
The towns of Bridgewater and Hebron had formed a village district to build an elementary school when they recognized that the school district would not agree to build a new school and, in fact, was abandoning the outlying schools (Bridgewater’s, Hebron’s, and Alexandria’s). After building the new facility, they agreed to lease it to the school district for $1 per year, while the village district would care of all the maintenance. The school district provides the staff to operate the school.
Migliore and Robert said they could not serve on the negotiating committee because it would create a conflict of interest.
The final board action was to approve a motion to include language on school board agendas to warn people that the public comment periods are designed to allow people to voice concerns, but that they should not expect a response from board members at that time.
3 April 2018

BRISTOL — Five weeks after Bristol resident Archie Auger questioned the legality of including capital improvement items in the school district’s default budget, the Newfound Area School Board is delaying discussion on the complaint, further alienating taxpayers who say they feel they can no longer trust the board.
Selectmen from several member towns, as well as residents of the district, attended that last two school board meetings in hopes of getting the board to admit it was wrong in its interpretation of what costs can legitimately be included in the default budget, but the matter was tabled on March 12 and not even included on the March 26 agenda.
School administrators say that Auger’s amendment to add $800,000 to last year’s operating budget to allow the district to replace the high school roof was not a one-time expenditure, which would prevent its placement in the default budget. Instead, they said the roof repair was part of an ongoing maintenance plan, so funding for other items in the capital improvement plan can be included in the default budget each year going forward.
Auger argued that, because the School Board had not formally adopted its capital improvement plan until after last year’s annual meeting, voters never had a chance to decide whether to approve it, a necessary step for an item to go into the default budget. A former long-time school district employee, Auger said a roof replacement cannot be considered an ongoing expense.
If the school board had addressed the issue right away, it could have determined whether his argument was valid and, if necessary, corrected the default budget before the annual School District Meeting. Instead, School Board Chair Jeff Levesque of Groton delayed discussion until March 12, a day before the ballot vote and a date Levesque already knew Auger would be out of town.
When residents showed up at the March 12 meeting demanding answers, Vincent Paul Migliore of Bridgewater tabled the question, saying he wanted to wait until Auger could be present to make his case. Because Auger planned to be out of town until the end of the month, the discussion was not placed on the March 26 agenda, legally preventing the board from taking any action.
Auger did come to the meeting, but he said he was not feeling well and agreed to wait until the board’s April 9 meeting for the discussion.
That did not sit well with those who had come for the second time, only to be told there would be no discussion.
New Hampton resident Dana Torsey said the board’s behavior was insulting, while Groton Selectman John Rescigno questioned the integrity of Superintendent Stacy Buckley, Business Manager Michael Limanni, and the entire school board for bypassing the voters on expenditures.
The administrators say the school district attorney had advised that they were correct in including $712,300 in new capital projects in the default budget because it was for continuing maintenance on school buildings.
Those who believe the administration was wrong said it undermined their faith in those in charge, and would end up hurting the students. Voters on March 13 affirmed that sentiment, defeating the proposed budget and leaving the district to operate on a smaller default budget.
Prior to its next meeting, the school board consulted with its attorney in a special meeting.
On the 26th, Rescigno argued against delaying the discussion, saying the board was already familiar with Auger’s arguments through emails with the administration. He said he would not be able to attend the April meeting, and others who were there also were being inconvenienced by another delay.
He also contended that it took more than two weeks for Buckley to respond to an email from him, and that Levesque had never responded.
Buckley sharply denied that claim, later prompting Rescigno to note that the board’s policy of listening and not responding during the public comment periods appeared to be a rule that was only sometimes followed.
Several residents have vowed to take the school board to court if they do not relent, believing that a recent decision on a similar matter in Hillsborough County Superior Court supports their contention that no spending can be included in a default budget that has not first been put through a public hearing and a vote of the legislative body.
Bristol resident Paul Simard told the board that, if their logic were allowed to stand, they could get a new, $30 million building simply by putting the project in the capital improvement plan.
Bristol Selectman Don Milbrand said he agreed with the board’s previous decision to table the question until Auger could be present, but he took exception to Migliore’s statement that people did not attend school board meetings unless there was a hot button issue.
He called that characterization “derogatory” and said, “We’re going to come when there’s something important on the agenda. You were elected to represent us. If nobody’s here, it means you are being trusted. … There is no trust right now. We’re going to have to sit here and micromanage things so you don’t do things behind our backs again.”
27 March 2018