Late Filers Make Concord School Board Races Competitive

On the last day of filing, five candidates came forward to run for Concord School Board district seats ensuring that voters in every part of the city with have choices when they go to the polls in November.

In the District A two-year seat, covering Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4, filling out the remaining time to Melissa Donovan’s term, Evan Mulholland filed to run on Sept. 15, competing against Jim Richards, who filed last week. In the District B seat race, two candidates filed today to face-off against Barbara Higgins, who filed last week. Patrick Taylor, who was appointed to fill out the rest of the year for Nick Metalious who resigned in March, filed to run as did Nathan Fennessy. The District covers Wards 5, 6, and 7. For the District C seat, which covers Wards 8, 9, and 10, on the eastern side of the city, Shawn Hackshaw and Alana Kimball both filed to run for one seat.

The only one to skate from a challenge was incumbent Tom Croteau in District A, who will win a three-year seat by default.

District A candidates (two-year seat)

Mulholland is an attorney with the state of New Hampshire. He worked in the Attorney General’s office for six years but just moved to the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department. He switched jobs, he said, because it was a different challenge and offered more legislative policy work.

He has been in Concord for about seven years and had been trying to find ways of giving back to the community. Previously, he volunteered at the library, but also had a bit of experience with school boards since his mother served on one for many years when he was growing up in New Jersey.

“I’ve actually been thinking about it, probably since the last person resigned,” Mulholland said. “I was also inspired by Dan Feltes. I’m 38-years-old. I think it’s good for younger people to get involved.”

He is married with two young daughters and said he was excited by the responsibility the board has and would like to get another look at possibly implementing full-day Kindergarten.

“Some surrounding towns have done that,” he said, “if we can do it, I would vote for it.”

Mulholland added that he would also be “responsive to the people in the city and what they think we should have in the schools” including other points of view. He added, “I want to support the schools, I want to be a person on the board who makes them better.”

Richards is the head of store operations for the New Hampshire Liquor Commission. Previously, he worked for Eastern Mountain Sports at the company’s headquarters in Peterborough.

He lives in Ward 3. Richards has lived in the city about eight years and is married with two boys in the school district, one at Beaver Meadow and one in Rundlett.

“I’m interested in representing the wards and improving the schools so it creates an environment where our kids can succeed and thrive,” he said, “and continue the improvement in gains in science and math, while being financially responsible.”

Richards said he would like to focus on the sciences and said it was important for students to have the ability to learn new things. He said, “We cannot predict all the changes or the skills that will be required in the future, but the ability to recognize new situations and solve problems are one of the key skills … it’s not just about being a good test taker.”

Richards has an MBA in finance and an undergraduate degree in chemistry.

District B candidates

Fennessy, an attorney with Preti Flaherty, said he decided to run after reading that there were few candidates running. A new resident to the community, he and his wife have three young boys under the age of 4 and he was concerned about the future of the school system both from an educational standpoint and as a taxpayer.

Fennessy grew up in Dover and attended public schools there. He has three family members – his mother, sister, and brother – who are all school teachers. He went to law school in Washington, D.C., and then worked there for about six and half years. Fennessy had been trying to find a way to contribute more to the community.

One issue he would like to work on if elected is full-day Kindergarten in the district, which was recently a hot button issue in the District 15 state Senate race.

“The question is whether or not there is space to do it,” he said. “From my perspective, I see other districts in the area (initiating the policy). We need to reconsider if we have the money and the space to do it. We must have a more fulsome discussion if that is something we should be prioritizing.”

Higgins, who is also running for the District B seat, said there was “a learning curve” with the school board and she felt that she offered a lot to the board when it came to union negotiations and educational programming in the schools, due to her more than two decades working in the district.

“I’ve been through it as a teacher and I’ve been through at as a taxpayer struggling to make ends meet,” she said. “I bring that balance and perspective. I’ve also lived in Concord almost my entire life.”

If re-elected, she said she would work to improve extended learning opportunities outside of the classroom for high school students, noting that while Concord High School had great arts, athletics, and music programs, other districts were offering greater opportunities to their students.

Higgins added that she would like to continue working on creating true parity in the elementary school system something that wasn’t occurring even though the district spent $90.8 million on three new elementary schools.

“We have new buildings that are struggling structurally and physically, enrollments aren’t what we were told, there’s no literacy arts, they are at capacity,” she said. “We can talk a good game about pretty buildings but in the day-to-day running of the schools, what I see is not what is actually happening.”

Higgins said the current configuration of running for District seats instead of citywide should also improve representation on the board since so many board members, past administrators, and current administrators, live in Ward 5.

“What I like about the wards is that it’s pushing the envelope and forcing people in those neighborhoods to run,” she said. “I’m glad that we’ll have people from the Heights and East Concord running; it shouldn’t just be people from the West End.”

Taylor has been on the board since March. He works as an attorney at McLane, Graf, Raulerson and Middleton, focusing on litigation and energy. He is married, has three daughters, and has lived in Concord about eight years. Taylor called his time on the board “a very enriching experience” and said he had learned a lot, so far.

“I think I’ve had a good start,” he said. “I’ve worked with the other board members, getting a grip on the various issues … I want to keep going and continue with my work because it’s been a great experience. Six months is not enough to make a significant impact.”

His primary motivator is a desire to serve the community and since he is a parent of two students at the McAuliffe Elementary School, he had an interest in their education as well as “seeing that all of the children are well-served by the district.” Taylor noted that there were a lot of issues on the horizon including capital projects, the recent decision to bond $8-million-plus for improvements, adding that, “we need to be making sure that we’re investing in the other schools, as well, to make sure that students have an optimal learning experience.” Even revisiting full-day Kindergarten, a hot button issue, should get another look.

“I do think that it should be in the conversation to at least be considering and talking about it,” he said. “For parents and students in the district, I do agree it’s an important one.”

District C candidates

Hackshaw is a long-time resident of Concord and attended its public school system. He is currently a math education professor at Plymouth State University, preparing future teachers, and is in his fifth year teaching there. He has two full-grown children and a younger daughter who attends the Shaker Road School where the small class sizes improved her learning and educational opportunities, he said. Hackshaw was running because it was “time to do something about the state of education in Concord,” especially when it came to communicating with parents and taxpayers.

“We’ve seen a lot of things going on with the schools, the elementary school consolidation (plan) and we often don’t find out about them until it’s a done deal,” he said. “I’d like to see more open communication with the school board and the citizens, and hopefully I can offer that. I’d like to make the Concord system a great system like when we were there.”

Improving curriculum to the point “where the students are more engaged with it, so it’s more meaningful,” was another initiative he would like to work on. He said the district needed to improve teacher training and pointed to the installation of iPads in the elementary school classrooms without the proper training for teachers.

“There was no training,” he said, adding that the district need to work to ensure that “the teacher’s perception of what they get out of the district then transfers to what the student’s are getting out of it.”

Kimball, another candidate running for the District C seat, summarized her candidacy relatively simply: “Mother, teacher, and homeowner.”

Kimball is an elementary school teacher in another district and has been teaching for about 13 years. She has a young daughter who will be enrolled in elementary school system next year. Kimball said she had always been interested in politics and had worked in the school district in the past. After seeing the articles on Patch, she decided to run.

“I want to, hopefully, represent the people of Wards 8, 9, and 10, to represent all parties involved,” she said. “I’ve had experience looking at budgets … I’ve seen how a school system works.”

If elected, Kimball would like to see the district become “financially responsible,” adding that there could be “a little bit more transparency” when it come to the way the school board interacts with the public. She was surprised with the amount of autonomy the district has and noted that at her job, the voters get to approve of the school budget and teacher contracts.

“If the taxpayers say ‘No,’ we start from scratch,” she said “There needs to be more information out there. A lot of things are happening and then, we get the bill. There is a happy medium to everything.”

The next three years for Croteau

Croteau said he was glad to be able to serve another three years calling the board and administrators “a nice team” to be working with.

During the next three years, he said he was looking forward to seeing how behavioral specialists were working in the elementary schools at addressing the needs of kids having difficulties. Croteau said that the schools were working on a positive behavioral plan in an effort to emphasize the positive instead of negative and rewarding that activity.

“Getting those kids help … it will be something to watch that process move through in the next couple of years,” he said. “I think that is a great way to go … along with that, collecting the data and the reporting process … all of this is going to take a few years to get good at it but that’s going to be fun to watch.”

Croteau said balancing all the needs of students, the buildings, and employees “while making sure we’re not taxing people out of Concord” was going to be a challenge, too.