November 26, 2008
Monadnock Loses Member
Keene Sentinel
SWANZEY — And then there were 12.
What sounds like an Agatha Christie novel has become the Monadnock Regional School Board’s reality show as, one by one, representatives have abandoned its ranks.
Swanzey representative Kristen Goodenough is the latest member to quit — the third since September — and each departing member has given his or her resignations effective immediately.
There are 14 seats on the Monadnock school board, serving the district towns of Fitzwilliam, Gilsum, Richmond, Roxbury, Sullivan Swanzey and Troy.
With former board member Colline M. Dreyfuss’s Swanzey seat recently filled by Eric Stanley, Goodenough’s pending resignation — which school board members, in a formality, will likely vote to accept or reject on Dec. 2 — brings the vacancy count to two.
Another seat has been empty for about seven months. Although Sullivan representative Timothy Aho hasn’t resigned his position, he hasn’t been to a school board meeting since April. Aho did attend an official-ballot first session for the teachers contract in August, but said he’s been unable to attend board meetings because of business conflicts.
This morning, Aho repeated his intent to return to the board in the future.
Goodenough was elected to the school board in March for a three-year term and served briefly as chairman of the community relations committee. She was also chairman of the Be True to Your School committee, a group that links school officials, students and parents in an effort to raise funds for the high school.
In an e-mail to The Sentinel Monday, Goodenough became the latest exiting board member to point to the district’s contentious politics as weighing heavily on her decision to resign.
“I am discouraged and frustrated with the current direction of the board,” she wrote. “The issues are so BIG … Bigger than simple volunteerism can resolve.”
Goodenough’s e-mail also describes a lack of funding for improving communication with voters and speaks of “strong, mean-spirited factions in our community” blocking school board efforts to raise student achievement.
The two other representatives to jump ship in recent months expressed similar frustrations.
At a Sept. 16 meeting, Dreyfuss, of Swanzey, announced in a letter that she was quitting the school board.
“I feel that I can serve my district better as a watchdog of those who skirt the truth and promote dysfunction in our cooperative district,” she wrote in the letter, while later describing to The Sentinel other personal reasons that factored into her decision.
Five weeks later, Karen A. Cota — who had served as the school board’s longtime facilities chairman and Roxbury’s sole representative — also threw in the towel.
“In the last six months it has become more apparent that this board is not interested in the welfare of our students,” she said, reading her resignation letter to the school board Oct. 21. “I believe this board is more interested in power trips, and personal egos are at an all-time high.”
In her e-mail to The Sentinel, Goodenough wrote, “I feel that there are other, more productive, ways that I may be able to contribute without the restrictions imposed by being a board member.”
Yet, as district budget hearings approach, Swanzey is down one school board member. And Roxbury and Sullivan — should Aho continue to be absent — are left without any representation at all.
“It’s disheartening to have this happen,” Nancy L. Carlson, chairman of the Swanzey Board of Selectmen, said Monday.
With the passage of the teachers contract in September and the strong message of change Monadnock Regional High School Principal Brian S. Pickering gave this summer in a documentary on Cheshire TV, Carlson said, “Things just seemed to be running and heading in a positive direction. And then the school board doesn’t seem to be on the same page.”
As with Dreyfuss, Swanzey selectmen will choose a replacement for Goodenough, according to Carlson.
This person will finish the year, she said, but will need to be re-elected by voters in March to continue serving on the board.
This could present a problem, Carlson explained. She said the endpoints of school board terms are staggered in a way that prevents large turnovers — yet three of Swanzey’s six seats will open this March.
But Roxbury has even more immediate troubles.
“We’d like to fill our position as soon as possible, but we just haven’t found the person,” said Daniel E. Stockwell, a Roxbury selectman and former principal of Monadnock Regional High School. “At this point, we haven’t found anyone interested.”
Stockwell also lamented losing Cota because of her experience on the school board.
“She worked very hard for the district,” he said. “She did a lot on the facilities committee.”
Superintendent Kenneth R. Dassau echoed him.
“I’m concerned that the board is losing experienced members. When you have a (Colline) Dreyfuss and a (Karen) Cota leave, I mean that was years of experience and two of the hardest working members on the board,” he said while describing Goodenough as bringing marketing skills and enthusiasm that will be difficult to replace.
As for the fact that Roxbury — like Sullivan — currently has no one at school board meetings acting on the town’s behalf, Stockwell said, “We certainly pay taxes and send our kids there and would like to have a representative there when they’re making decisions.”
###
Note from Monadnock Taxpayers Association: The people who have quit the school board are among the biggest tax and spenders in the district. They contributed heavily to the large school tax increases that we see on this December’s tax bill.