CONCORD, NH — A long-time city resident and local attorney was the first new candidate to file to run for three citywide SAU 8 school board seats on Friday, the first day of signups.
Andrew Winters of Wilson Avenue, an attorney with Cohen & Winters, filed to run citywide primarily due to the decision by the school board to construct a new middle school on the east side of the city. He said, “There’s a groundswell of people in the community who are feeling this way” and he would be interested in having a revote on the issue.
“Procedurally,” he said, “how that would work … we’d have to look at it. So, I can’t say how that would be brought onto the agenda or how that would look like. I wouldn’t have the immediate authority, on my own, but I would advocate for that position.”
Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Winters called the decision controversial “and rightly so,” adding the move to build a middle school in East Concord “threatens to dramatically alter the character” of both sides of the city. He said there was widespread opposition in both neighborhoods to the decision, which needed to be revisited.
The costs, too, between $135 million and $165 million, before interest is included, were a concern, especially with enrollments at less than 800 students.
Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
When asked if he supported a completely new school at the current Rundlett Middle School site, which is expected to cost slightly more than the $225-plus million new school, or renovating the school for around $10 million and waiting until the elementary school consolidation project was paid off, as the voters were promised years ago, Winters said he would not be taking “a hard position” at this time.
“I see both sides of it,” he said. “That is a tougher question. Voters have been promised a lot of things over the years. I do think the cost raises eyebrows. Can I say, definitely, if it is unwarranted or we don’t need it? I don’t think I have enough information to say that now.”
Winters, who has lived in the South End about 13 years and also served on the zoning board, said he has read the current status report and has been there since his daughter attends the school. He can see why people want a new school.
“People want a lot of things,” he said. “Ideally, we could have everything. But I’m not saying I’m opposed to it either.”
Also Read
While the middle school issues were his primary motivator for running, Winters said he would also focus on balancing the duty to provide a high-quality education with responsible public funds management. He would like to take a deeper look at the budget issues, although he has yet to have a chance to. Enrollments are also dropping. With charter schools, online learning, homeschooling, and other opportunities, the board faces many challenges, he said.
“(Declining enrollments are) a huge challenge,” Winters said. “And this is a challenge nationwide, and certainly in New England, where there has been population stagnation; it’s an older population … nobody has a crystal ball, but it seems very unlikely that enrollments are going to be going up because of fewer young people and more alternatives.”
The costs, too, are fixed due to building, personnel costs, and other things, so the per-student cost basis, especially with inflation is “off the charts and exceeding the cost-of-living … yeah, that’s a big problem.” But, at the same time, Winters said he did not think any one board member or one board, in a single term, is going to be able to tackle that problem singlehandedly.
“But should they be something the board needs to be hawkish about it or needs to be a check on? Absolutely,” he said.
When asked, Winters said he was intrigued with the idea of merging the Concord and Merrimack Valley school districts and would like to study it.
“It’s an interesting proposition,” he said. “It’s definitely worth studying. I would imagine there will be institutional resistance for a lot of reasons to it, on all sides.”
Winters noted that SAUs have also split apart even if, on paper, it looked like things were working, but officials and parents could not get along.
One example was the tiny town of Hill leaving Franklin and joining the Newfound Area School District about a decade ago — putting Franklin in a financial bind to the point where school officials have wanted to break the city’s tax cap while also advocating for a broad-based tax to pay for its schools instead of rightsizing its district or trying to attract other smaller communities to send their kids there. Also this week, the Contoocook Valley Regional School District announced two warrant articles filed by Dublin and Francestown to study withdrawing from ConVal.
“Will it work is a question … do I think it should be studied more? I could agree with that, for sure,” Winters said.
Where Do The Incumbents Stand?
Pamela Walsh, the current board president who holds one of the three at-large seats, confirmed Friday she intended to file for reelection.
“I am proud of the work that we have done as a school board,” she said, “revamping our reading program to focus on phonetics, implementing a new math curriculum and expanding foreign language in the middle school; improving school security and safety; advocating for parents and students; and keeping local property tax rate increases well below inflation.”
Barbara Higgins, another at-large school board member and the longest-serving board member, said she would decide whether to run again sometime next week.
Bob Cotton, the third incumbent, said Friday he was still on the fence about whether to run again.
Thomas Croteau, a former school board member, educator, sheriff’s deputy, and the current district treasurer, signed up to run for another term as treasurer.
“I love this district,” the retiree said. “And I love to stay involved. And this helps me. I want to be involved. And this is a little bitty way to do that.”
How To Run
The filing period for candidates runs through 4 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 16, at the district office at 38 Liberty St. in Concord.
To run, candidates must be registered to vote and domiciled in the Concord School District (a district map is linked here).
Do you have a news tip? Please email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella’s YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel. Follow the NH politics Twitter account @NHPatchPolitics for all our campaign coverage.
Click Here: England Mens Alternate Rugby Shirt 2022-23
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.