Concord School Board Candidate Richards Focuses On The Future

CONCORD, NH — One of two incumbents seeking reelection to Concord Board of Education district seats, Jim Richards knows the public is furious. He's not so happy either. The board has been consumed by the Primo "Howie" Leung teacher-student rape arrest – and the fallout and chaos that has consumed the board since, with members believing former School Superintendent Terri Forsten had everything under control.

"I can't think of a more horrible situation for a school district to be faced with," he said. "And we need to create (and) establish a culture in the Concord School District that puts students first. And it's going to take everybody."

Richards was first elected in 2014, by a two-to-one margin against Evan Mulholland, to fill out the remainder of Melissa Donovan's term after she moved out of the district a year after being elected to the District A seat, which represents Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4. He was unopposed in 2016. The district runs from Ward 1 south to the north side of District 5 Road, Little Pond Road, and Penacook Street, Liberty to Centre streets east, to the Merrimack River and then, north along the river to Penacook.

In running for his second full term, Richards is focused on the same reasons he ran in the first place: Bringing unique job and life experiences to the board. Richards has a chemical engineering degree, a Master's in business, and currently works managing the 77 state liquor and wine outlets, with 1,300 unionized full- and part-time employees.

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"It's working together to find ways to find common ground and recognizing the roles that each person plays," he said. "That experience … getting thing done at times, coming at different points of view and different expectation, doesn't mean you can't work together."

Richards said his role tackling budgets, which takes a lot of work, even with so much experience with budgeting, and his work on the capital facilities committee were fulfilling. Securing doors at Concord High School, one of the first initiatives Richards promoted when he was first elected, has been completed. The high school was built in a different time, he said, although that did not mean the district couldn't or shouldn't improve safety. Richards stated most of the schools were secure but there was still more work to do to promote student safety in buildings.

Diversity and the creation of the district seats have improved the makeup on the board, Richards said. In the past, seats were all citywide. A lot of people came from Ward 5. They were often a lot of lawyers and not many educators. People in the Beaver Meadow area of the city know him from when his children went to school there, he said, in the northern part of the city where turnout can sometimes to be lower than other areas.

"I've been impressed with the commitment and the quality of people that have come on the board," he said. "Everybody takes this job very, very serious. These are our kids; this is our tax money; this is our community."

Richards supports a new Rundlett Middle School because there are a lot of upgrades needed and board members looked at whether or not to invest a lot of money into fixing an older building or building a new one, which seems more logical to them.

Rundlett was built as a junior high school not a middle school with 30 student classrooms and is not conducive to special education students or English language learners, which require smaller classrooms and one-on-one areas. There are wi-fi issues in the building as well 3-D printer connectivity problems – items that were needed for modern schooling. The building needs a new roof, too.

Rundlett also has asbestos issues so remediation or renovation costs were more expensive when something needs to be fixed. Most of it was constructed in 1957 but part of the west side of the building is only 20 years old. Retrofitting that section of the building and attaching it to a new building, while adapting to modern building codes, will actually cost more than just knocking it down and building new, he said.

The old stables building by Concord High School, he said, is one building the district owns that is worth taking the time to preserve and might be turned into a museum, if partners could be found.

The price tag of a new Rundlett, $60 million to $80 million, is also worrisome to residents already paying pretty high property taxes now. Richards said the board was concerned about the high cost of a new school, too. Money is being put into a trust fund and the state would need to assist.

"We have some techniques that we can do to fund it but we want to do it to not make that huge step change in the tax base," he said. "There's no way I want to raise taxes by a huge amount just to be able to create a middle school and I don't think anybody on the board feels that way. I can't speak for them but I can speak for myself."

After the Leung case, Richards admitted they struggled with communications and should have done a better job. He and the board were committed to improving communications not only within the district and between board members but also with the public. The board also serves as an appeal board when it comes to personnel issues so not all the members always know about a specific situation.

Richards said community members coming to the board meetings have been a positive thing and input was important.

"We need to do a better job at that," he said. "And we have to keep that going … that the community is always involved in the school district … the community is the school district and the district is the community; we are intertwined."

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