CLAREMONT – Choosing a new administrator to lead the district, more potential budget cuts, continued financial constraints, including a possible spending cap, and rebuilding public confidence are among the challenges facing the winners in the March 10 election for the School Board.
Incumbent Frank Sprague, former School Board member Brian Rapp, retired Claremont teacher Don Lavalette and current city councilor Andrew O’Hearne are running for two, three-year seats on the seven-member board. Incumbent Arlene Hawkins is not seeking re-election.
Since late last summer, when a $5 million budget deficit was revealed to the public, the board has come under fire from residents for not paying closer attention to the district’s finances. There have been deep cuts to the current budget, which many say have adversely affected classroom learning, as interim business administrator Matt Angell, hired in late August, works to eliminate the deficit by the end of the fiscal year on June 30th.
Lavalette, 60, retired from the Claremont School District in 2014. During his tenure, he served as president of the Sugar River Education Association, the union representing the district’s teachers.
While he had “100% attendance watching School Board meetings” Lavalette said he never attended meetings until recently and feels a “little guilty” about that.
“By not actually being part of the process, I own a little of the blame (for the current problems). So I decided to make a run for the board. That was my impetus,” he said.
If elected, Lavalette said he will get the board more involved in regularly reviewing the district’s finances and increase transparency with the public.
“I am an advocate of having the director of finance (business administrator) report directly to the School Board,” said Lavalette, who has spoken at board meetings since the financial crisis hit the district last year. “Previously, they reported to the superintendent, and I don’t think we can take that chance anymore.”
Lavalette said another good first step to rebuilding public trust is to have everything given to the board immediately posted on the SAU website, including the bills that have been paid, which is not the current practice.
“That would eliminate some of the noise (from the public) that is out there,” Lavalette said. “Just get ahead of the FOI (Freedom of Information) requests and put it all out there.”
Lavalette gives the board credit for listening to public concerns about district finances by proposing a budget lower than this year’s, but he thinks more can be done to restore public trust, especially at board meetings.
“I would like a little more open agenda,” he said. “Citizens get just three minutes to ask questions, and there is never any follow-up. That goes to the transparency piece. Board members should be allowed to ask questions of things that may not be on the agenda.”
Regarding the spending cap that is on the March 10 ballot by petition, Lavalette, as well as Sprague and Rapp, are opposed. The cap, if approved by 60% of voters, could mean millions in cuts in 2027 because the budget would use the current year as a baseline.
“I think we have to have an understanding that there is a reason that (cap) has gotten some traction,” Lavalette said. “You have a board that has a massive debt, hasn’t been transparent, and people can’t get answers. There is a lot of talk but no real plan, and that gives rise to that sort of thing. As far as I am concerned, everything needs to be out front.”
Lavalette also supports the School Board’s decision not to require that the next district leader hold New Hampshire superintendent credentials.
“With the previous superintendents, we have not always gotten the cream of the crop,” he said. “No disrespect to those people, but just because someone has letters after their name doesn’t make them qualified to be the educational leader we need or deserve. If we get someone with state credentials, fine. If not, that is fine as well. We have to have a wide open search.”
Regarding the board’s three budget plans with two, four school models and one three school model that were considered by the board last month, Lavalette said all three should have been presented at the Jan. 20 public hearing to let the voters hear all options instead of just the four school models. And if elected, he would listen to any discussion on reconfiguring the district’s schools going forward.
“I don’t know why you would shut down exploring anything,” he said. “What is the harm?”
Rapp, 50, is the Deputy Fire Chief in Claremont and has been with the department for 21 years. He served on the School Board from 2010 to 2017.
“When I was on the board, I think we had a pretty good run,” Rapp said, noting that annual audits were done during his tenure. “We were dealing with many of the same issues this board has, and we got through it pretty well.”
Rapp decided to run again because he believes the board is not functioning the way it should.
“I think the board has made some questionable decisions,” Rapp said. “There are definitely some dysfunctional problems with the current board.”
As an example, Rapp said the chairwoman, Heather Whitney, has “made motions and pushed an agenda that doesn’t originate from board discussions. That is a problem. I have never seen a board where the chair makes motions.
Whitney pushed hard for a budget with three schools – one elementary and grades 7-12 at the high school- and recommended additional cuts to the proposed budget to eliminate an increase from this year.
“One of the reasons I want to get on the board is because I see a kind of crazy dynamic on the board where they can go in any direction and change their minds and go in another,” Rapp said. “The curriculum has changed three times in the last seven years. What teacher can move forward effectively when you are changing what students are supposed to be learning? And they think this is a sane way to run a school district.”
Regarding the financial chaos that befell the district last year, Rapp said the board needs to accept some of the blame.
“As a board member, if someone tells you something and you take it at face value, that is on you,” he said regarding financial reports that did not indicate there was a crisis brewing.
Some of the problems with past deficits were attributed to too much money being returned to taxpayers, which Rapp believes the board should have picked up on.
“There is this focus on cut, cut, cut, and let’s give money back to the taxpayers without understanding your finances,” he said. “If they had been doing audits, that should have been picked up on.”
The next board is likely to take up further consolidation plans, including the closure and possible sale of Bluff Elementary School, pending the March 10 vote and declining enrollment.
“We can look at anything, and if it makes sense educationally, I am in support of it,” said Rapp. “But we can’t force something, and I think the three-school model is absurd.”
Selling the Dow Building, where the SAU offices are located, might sound good, but the building shares parking with the high school, and that can create logistical problems, he said.
At one board meeting during the school realignment discussion, Rapp supported leaving the current K-5 configuration at the two elementary schools for another year, but the board instead proposed a budget with two grade-specific elementary schools.
Rapp does not support a superintendent without state credentials. A similar idea, which Rapp opposed at the time, was pushed by a group of residents in 2011 when the board hired Middleton McGoodwin as superintendent.
“I continue to believe we need someone with an educational background to lead the district,” Rapp said. “So many decisions have to be made based on the educational systems in New Hampshire. If the person is not knowledgeable, it could lead us down a deeper hole.”
Sprague, 72, had a career in education and retired as principal of Stevens High School in 2014. He has served on the board for about 10 years. Suggestions by some in the public that the board was asleep at the switch as a fiscal crisis loomed are simply inaccurate, Sprague said.
“We made every effort to make sure we were getting accurate information,” he said. “I was chairman of the finance committee, and we were meeting with the administration on a regular basis, not because we suspected anything was wrong, but because that was our function.”
The committee received updated financial statements that indicated everything was fine until it came “crashing down,” Sprague said.
Last spring, the board was told the fiscal year would end with a surplus of about $80,000 then the figure went to a $250,000 deficit, and later, more than $1 million, Sprague said.
At a meeting in May, when audits from 2020 and 2021 showed a combined deficit of $2 million, former Superintendent Chris Pratt and former business administrator Mary Henry assured the board they had found the problems – too much money returned to taxpayers – and had corrected them.
“We really tried to get the information,” said Sprague, backing up what current finance committee member Candy Crawford stated at a meeting last spring. “I keep saying you really can’t blame the board for this. When you bring in people and pay them a lot of money, you expect them to act like professionals.”
He said the board has been responsive to voters on finances and the proposed budget, which is less than the current year, as one example of listening to voters.
Sprague resigned from the board last August following a meeting at Stevens High School, when the board voted to cut about 20 non-teaching positions, to follow a decision not to go through with contracts for 19 new hires, and to cut funding for sports.
“That hit home because my daughter was one of the 19. I was extremely frustrated because I didn’t think the administration was really changing its behavior. They were continuing to be dishonest with us,” he said. “It was frustrating the way decisions were being made without logic, getting rid of all those people.”
Sprague said he later reconsidered his decision and felt he could play a role in helping the district. He was asked to rejoin the board by the chairwoman, Heather Whitney, and voted back on in a 3-2 vote. At first, Sprague said he planned to only complete his current three-year term, but changed his mind and believes he can contribute “valuable advice” in hiring the next superintendent. and turning the district around.
“I feel my expertise is needed. That is why I am back,” he said.
Regarding a possible three-school model that chairwoman Whitney strongly advocated for, Sprague said he is willing to listen but cannot envision grades 7-12 at the high school, which is part of the model, along with one elementary school and grades 3-6 at the middle school.
“The people who are pushing this have oversimplified how easy it is to do that,” said Sprague, who worked at the middle high school in Newport. “I am familiar with the 7-12 model. Nobody is able to show me how this would work. In my opinion, it is an idea, not a plan.”
Sprague supports the board’s plan to consider someone without an educational background to be the district’s next leader.
“There has been a lack of oversight, so we need somebody who can really take charge,” Sprague said. “We need a good manager, and you don’t need to have an educational background to be a good manager.”
O’Hearne, a former school board member and former Democratic state representative, did not respond to a request for an interview.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
