The Forum – When Will The SAU 44 Board Come Forward With The Facts
I along with many other SAU 44 residents have been interested in why Superintendent Judy McGann was fired a few months ago.
There has been no reason given by any of the individual school boards that make up SAU 44, nor the members of the SAU itself. When asked, all we hear is “no comment”. But that hasn’t stopped some of us from doing some investigating into this on our own.
My neighbor and friend, Gene Reed quickly sent requests to the SAU for information pertaining to the firing of Ms. McGann under the NH Right to Know Act. The folks at the SAU acted like they had never heard of the NH Right to Know Act. After several attempts, Mr. Reed finally was given the name of the lawyers that represent the SAU. He contacted them, again, citing the NH Right to Know Act, (RSA-91-A). Finally, Mr Reed received over a thousand pages of documents and “logs of privileged documents” which were withheld. Most have been worthless in his attempt in finding out the reasons behind Ms. McGann’s firing. Most have been emails, between SAU employees and members of the school boards, consisting of lengthy time consuming jokes. While I realize that some of us do send emails at work, which would include jokes, I do find SAU employees, who we pay for out of our taxes, and entrust to the good management of school resources, spending some of their time sending jokes back and forth, disconcerning.
And I guess this is where this letter is heading; is our tax money being spent wisely in this ongoing investigation into Ms. McGann’s firing? We know that an audit is underway at the SAU. One would think that this audit, since it is being processed by an outside agency, is being conducted due to the firing. Yet no one at the SAU will answer this question. The SAU books are audited on a yearly basis, yet the past two years are being re audited. Does that mean, the auditors who did this past check are not being trusted? Or does it mean someone has used funds incorrectly? Or are they exploring new areas? We don’t know, because the people who work for us, yes, they work for us, since we pay them through our taxes, will not respond to us. Are they afraid to tell us why this audit at a cost over $100,000 per Northwood Board Chair Colleen Pingree, will be billed back to us, and yet, nothing will be found? Would our elected representatives actually fire someone based on information they “think” they will find?
If we pay these people, why aren’t they being up front with us and tell us what was the basis of Ms. McGann’s firing? Was it based on talk from others that worked with her? What is the significance of the Business Administrator, William Tappan, resiging on short notice and Ms. McGAnn’s firing a few days later? Is that a coincidence? Is there really any evidence that a crime has been committed? Shouldn’t we be informed, so we could also give an opinion on action that should be taken? Maybe in the future, a group made up of individuals from the three towns, should be called in to hear the evidence, interview the parties, and then make the decision. If we are able to pay these people, with our tax dollars, we should also be part of the decision regarding who is fired and who is hired.
Which brings me to the new superintendent that has been hired. I have never met Dr. Michael Ludwell, who was head of the Manchester schools, until he resigned last December. Why did he resign? Because Dr. Ludwell raised his own pay, by 2% after the Manchester School Board voted to deny him that raise. And that was not the first time he raised his own pay while he was the superintendent of the Manchester schools. Now, you may be sitting there thinking, why did the SAU hire someone who resigned due to a money issue, when there might be a money issue at the SAU today? I wondered too, but when I asked if the Nottingham School Board knew about the reason why Dr. Ludwell resigned from his position in Manchester, I was told, to come down and ask him Dr. Ludwell, himself, about it at a school board meeting.
While there could be a very good explanation about Dr. Ludwell securing a 2% pay increase, shouldn’t Dr. Ludwell explain what happened to the SAU 44 taxpayers, instead of us discovering it in a former news article? And while he is being paid $450 a day, totaling to over $115,000, Ms. McGann’s salary was only $95,000. And is Ms. McGann still receiving her salary until the end of her contract? Who is picking up the extra costs? I think we!
And what about all of the legal expenses piling up in this mess? You got it, we are paying for that also! We are paying for a case that no one will tell us anything about. We are paying for a case that we don’t even know if there is evidence against the accused, or if she was fired on someone’s malicious words alone. Do you smell lawsuit?
We, the residents of Nottingham, Northwood, and Strafford, should be outraged at the way this has all been handled. We should all demand to know the truth as to what has happened. On November 11, at 5:30, a public hearing, requested by Judy McGann will be held at the Northwood School. Maybe then we will finally hear the reasoning behind her firing. Or will the Board hide the information behind closed doors?
And then, if there was no legitimate reason to fire her, we should ask all of our school board members to step down, and be replaced, for not having a public hearing in the first place to air their accusations and to allow Ms. McGann the opportunity to respond to those accusations. We put our trust in our SAU school board members dealing with our children’s education. We also need to have our trust in them when making expenditures that will cost our communities and affect our students.
Karen Davidson
Nottingham