Ardinger, Feltes Race Gets Nasty

If you’re a “good” Democratic or unenrolled (independent) voter in Concord, Henniker, Hopkinton, or Warner – meaning you vote in most or every election – you’ve been seeing a barrage of leaflets in your mailbox from the two Democratic candidates running for the District 15 state Senate seat, Kass Ardinger and Dan Feltes.

The latest mailers, however, have changed the tone of the race, specifically, about the issue of funding for early childhood education and full-day kindergarten, one of the only major political differences that separate the candidates.

Feltes has been hitting Ardinger on the issue of full-day K hard, specifically, a decision the Concord School Board made five years ago while it was consumed with the controversial elementary school consolidation project that ultimately demolished three structurally sound historic buildings and shrunk the city’s nine elementary schools down to four, along with a primary school.

At the time, Ardinger, who was president of the board, and other members, made the decision not to implement full-day kindergarten as part of the project because it would have required a couple of more classrooms constructed in each of the new schools.

On the campaign trail, Feltes has been promoting the need for more funding for early childhood education including the implementation of full-day K throughout the state. Feltes comments clearly rubbed Ardinger – and others – the wrong way.

Feltes, via two mailers, promoted the issue again by quoting Ardinger from board minutes from November 2009 as saying, “The cost of building twice the number of kindergarten classrooms than currently exist outweigh the potential benefits of full-day kindergarten.” This, Feltes suggested at the NHTI forum on Aug. 19, and on the stump, showed that Ardinger didn’t support the expansion to full-day K by voting against the ability to allow for space to be built for the expansion.

One of Ardinger’s strongest supporters, Clint Cogswell, the current president of the school board, countered Feltes campaign tactics with an op-ed in the Aug. 21, edition of the Concord Monitor, claiming that Feltes’ comments were “misstatements” and that the board was focused on “provide parity of facilities within the district” while delivering the biggest bang for the buck. He also noted – as did Ardinger later, at the NHTI forum – that state aid wouldn’t cover the extra classrooms.

On Aug. 27, Ardinger offered her own mailer, with bold, chalk-like, horror movie graphics saying, “Shame on Dan Feltes!,” attacking the candidate for going negative in the race. The leaflet stated that his campaign had to go negative because it was was “in trouble,” a somewhat laughable and negative comment itself when considering Feltes’ hundreds of small campaign contributions and out-raising Ardinger by more $26,000. The mailer also quoted Cogswell and two former school board members who commended Ardinger for her work, with one, former member Betty Hoadley, claiming that Feltes was deceiving voters.

“Neither Kass Ardinger nor the Concord School Board has ever voted ‘to stop’ kindergarten programs,” she stated in the quote. “Apparently Dan Feltes will say anything, including misleading voters, to get elected.”

However, Barbara Higgins, a former Concord teacher who now serves on the board and also saw Ardinger’s mailer, said she was “horrified” by school board members who were attacking Feltes for telling the truth.

“As a board member who works side by side with Kass, and knows the power of words, I am disappointed that Kass appears to be fighting fire with fire and resorting to the negative campaigning she purports to abhor,” Higgins said. “As a district employee at the time she made the kindergarten statement, it was very clear that full-day kindergarten was not going to be a part of our school consolidation project. Quoting Kass on this and holding her accountable for her statement is not negative campaigning; it is honest campaigning.”

So who is really correct?

As with all mailers by campaigns and comments by candidates, the issue is accuracy and providing the depth of information so the voter can make the most educated decision about candidates and public policy.

So who is being the most accurate? Well, technically, Feltes. However, he’s not telling the full story.

Regardless of whether there was state funding or not to pay for the classrooms needed to expand to full-day K, the decision to build the schools without those extra classrooms by Ardinger was not just “opposing” the public policy, as Feltes claims; it eliminated any chance for the school system to implement the program.

The decision to construct the three elementary schools on their current property footprints and architectural designs does not allow for any expanded classrooms or space for the future. While there may be parity in the elementary schools, as Cogswell stated in his column, the school board spent $90.8 million to construct schools that were at capacity and essentially, obsolete, the day they opened.

While many members of the Concord community were suggesting that future enrollments, the city’s changing demographics, and the need to be more flexible when it came to school space and programs required smaller, more intimate elementary school buildings, Ardinger and the majority of other members ignored the concerns of parents and taxpayers and pushed full steam ahead with their consolidation scheme.

There was never a truly “open and transparent consensus building” process as stated by Cogswell. Hundreds of people who wanted neighborhoods schools to remain in the district walked away from the process in 2007 because they perceived the entire thing to be a done deal when it was revealed that the district secretly spent $2.1 million buying up houses on Rumford, North Spring, and Pleasant streets.

Current or former school board members may personally support or oppose expansion of full-day K, but it doesn’t really matter because the district can’t implement full-day K because there isn’t room. For parents, promoters of early childhood education, voters, and property taxpayers, the future will be a bigger, more expensive issue.

More forums, one debate

The issue will likely be brought up again during the campaign, especially at the last few events scheduled between the candidates.

The candidates will meet in a forum at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31, at the Mainstreet Bookends Bookstore at 16 E. Main St. in Warner.

Also, Havenwood-Heritage Heights is hosting an event at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 3, at the auditorium on 33 Christian Avenue.

A debate will also be held at New England College in Henniker on Sept. 4, at the Simon Center Great Room, 98 Bridge St.

The District 15 seat includes Concord, Henniker, Hopkinton, and Warner.

The winner of the primary faces off against Lydia Dube Harman, a real estate agent from Warner, who will be the Republican nominee.