Opinion: The Concord School Board can restore trust with residents

By MARGARET LANDSMAN

Published: 04-27-2024 7:31 AM

Margaret Landsman has lived in Concord for 33 years. Before she retired, she taught English and ESOL at NHTI.

I have long been happy Concord has a school board financially independent from the city council, and believe it generally has resulted in a better school system for our kids. But I am worried our school board is, as a result of its own actions, rapidly losing credibility and putting its own independence at risk, as a grassroots effort has emerged to give the city council final say on the school budget.

As many know, our school board is the last in the state to have budgeting and taxation authority without oversight from another local political body. The idea is that the democratically elected school board members have studied the needs of the schools and can be trusted to make the best decisions without bureaucratic and political interference from another body.

That trust was severely shaken when the school board voted in December to site the new middle school at Broken Ground on the East Side, notwithstanding overwhelming public opposition to building at that site, and overwhelming support to build at the site next to the current Rundlett Middle School in the South End.

The school board didn’t listen to its constituents. The public, and by that I mean residents on both the east and west sides of the Merrimack River, made their support for the Rundlett site abundantly clear by writing many letters and emails, making phone calls, and showing up to several packed evening meetings to express their opposition to the East Side proposal.

Worse, the board did a poor job of articulating precisely why it made its decision. If the board believes its opponents on this issue are wrong, that’s okay. After all, that’s what good leadership should be about. But if that is the case the board should clearly, proactively and persuasively demonstrate why it is correct and the public is incorrect. The information that eventually seeped out is based on questionable dollar estimates and incomplete, shifting rationales. To seal the deal, the board members voted for the Broken Ground site just a few weeks before a new school board would be seated, a choice that, predictably, put a real dent in the board’s credibility.

The board could, and should, take another look now. It should answer the concerns residents have about the data upon which the board made its decision and the rationale the board is applying. To date, the board has avoided directly addressing the issue, while the chair has hinted the board could revisit it later, after more thousands of dollars have been spent exploring the proposed plan for the Broken Ground site.

Some on the board have said it would be unwise and set a bad precedent to revisit a previous board decision. The opposite is true. There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that perhaps the board did not do as well as it could have in sharing with the public the facts and its analysis of the alternatives, and considering the questions raised by the public. Careful reconsideration would show strength, not weakness, and a willingness to respond to legitimate public scrutiny.

It would go a long way to restoring public trust and confidence and rebutting the notion that its powers ought to be ceded to the city council. It’s not too late for the board to seize back the narrative and use this as an opportunity to show its effectiveness.

I have lived in Concord for 33 years. I sent my three children through the public schools here. I have regularly supported the school board, and frankly, was relieved in the past that it had some insulation from more extreme elements in our community. It never occurred to me that our school board would lose the trust of a significant portion of the public. I still believe having an independent school board is best for our community, but it must be premised on a school board that has the full trust and confidence of the members of our community.