Sunapee
School Board Chairman Shaun Carroll submitted his letter of resignation on Tuesday, and Paul Skarin, the board’s former vice chairman, was selected on Wednesday night to succeed Carroll.
“It is with great regret that I must step down from my position as a School Board member,” Carroll wrote. “Due to a personal situation, I can no longer serve my community in this capacity.”
Carroll wrote that he enjoyed his time on the board and did his best to represent the community.
“I have the utmost respect for the work that this board has done and know they will continue to serve the town of Sunapee well,” Carroll wrote.
He did not return calls at his home and business requesting comment on Thursday.
With almost two decades of experience on the board, Carroll was often the center of complaints leveled by a group of about a dozen Sunapee parents who accused the board of mishandling bullying and attempting to silence dissent. Now that he resigned, many of that group are hopeful for the district’s future.
“It’s a step in the right direction for the district,” said Paul Manson, who regularly attends meetings. “Hopefully we’re going to be on a good track here. We’ve had a long spell of bad leadership.”
Manson first began going to board meetings after he says his daughter was bullied by school administrators. He ultimately found other parents who said their children experienced similar treatment.
“Now we’ve got a pretty good group and it’s pretty typical (to attend meetings),” he said. “The more we learn, the worse it seems to get.”
Disagreements with the district and School Board came to a head last winter, when about 60 people attended a forum on bullying. Many said that not only were their children being bullied, but school administrators were hostile and unhelpful while handling complaints. Officials countered they properly follow procedures and said reported bullying cases are low.
Since then, Superintendent Russell Holden said, the district sponsored a bullying survey, brought in anti-bullying speakers and held forums for parents, but the same group of people continue to criticize the district.
“I think there are people who want specific changes in regards to personnel,” he said on Monday, adding that no school district discusses staffing issues during open meetings with the public.
“The Sunapee School District is doing some incredible things,” Holden said, inviting people to visit and see for themselves the work of teachers and staff.
Arguments at the School Board meetings are nothing new, said Dan Banks, who first began attending the meetings in 2004. That year, he publicly dissented to a school survey on drugs, and said the administration retaliated against his children in response.
Now, he’s suing the school district in federal court over an incident in 2008, when his daughter was suspended for 34 school days for sending a sexually explicit and vulgar email to a school administrator and teacher.
The suit contends the school district violated her constitutional rights and damaged her academic prospects by forcing her to be out of school for so long.
“Most of the kids, when they get pushed out, they just move away and you don’t hear about it,” Banks said. “Some of us are still here.”
Other people in the group point to an Oct. 24, School Board meeting as indicative of the way the district treats them.
The board planned a retreat at the Millstone Restaurant in New London to discuss their different educational philosophies and better get to know one another. Hearing of the meeting, the parents group set out to find notices.
State law requires notice of a meeting to be placed in two public locations 24 hours in advance, and parents set out around town looking on Sunday, according to Jan Bettencourt, a former board member allied with the parents’ group.
They found one notice at the high school, but Holden, the superintendent, says notices were also placed at the elementary school and SAU offices. A mistake led to some of the notices being placed at spots inside the buildings that couldn’t be seen from outside, he said, leading to the confusion.
“So we went to the most bizarre meeting you would possibly imagine,” said Don Bettencourt, Jan’s husband.
He said about 11 people and two School Board members arrived at the restaurant and waited in the lobby until Holden came in and asked the board members to follow him across the street, where they joined the three remaining board members. The following events, in a dark parking lot, were caught on cellphone cameras by parents. In under two minutes, the entire board allegedly convened a meeting and then adjourned, saying it would have to reschedule, according to the video.
“When the meeting was scheduled we didn’t have the thought there would be 12 people showing up to sit in on a board retreat,” Holden said.
Board retreats are common in New Hampshire school districts. Although they are legally required to be public, many boards schedule them in restaurants and use the time to discuss issues that don’t require a formal vote.
Holden said the owners of the Millstone called him that morning saying they received calls saying about 40 people intended to show up.
Knowing the facility couldn’t handle that many people on such short notice, he arrived 30 minutes early, trying to corral the board members so the meeting could be adjourned.
Regardless of past issues, Skarin, the new board chairman, said he intends to move forward in a positive manner. He acknowledges the board won’t always agree with people attending meetings, but is hopeful the two groups can learn to trust one another.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.