Lobbyist Endorses Concord School Board Candidates Before Org Sees Questionnaire Answers

CONCORD, NH — A lobbyist for a national organization advocating for expanded funding of early education programs has endorsed two school board candidates in Concord while also collecting questionnaires from all candidates to be considered for endorsement by her employer – leading some to raise questions about the entire process. Lindsay Hanson, the government relations manager for the Save The Children Action Network (SCAN), personally endorsed two candidates on Facebook last week. One endorsement was issued before she sent out questionnaires and another about four hours after sending out the request, according to screenshots submitted to Patch.

Hanson endorsed Liza Poinier in the District B (Wards 5, 6, and 7) school board race on Sept. 19, 2017. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Concord NH Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

“Click below to ‘like’ her page and follow her campaign,” Hanson advocated.

About 36 hours later, she endorsed Liza Dube in the District A (Wards 1, 2, 3, and 4) race.

“She’s one of the best people I know!,” she exclaimed.

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But in between those endorsements, Hanson sent an email out to all school board candidates requesting answers from them on behalf of SCAN, which has previously spent hundreds of thousands of dollars influencing gubernatorial and municipal races in the state.

“Today we’re asking candidates like yourself to take up the cause of early childhood education in your platform as you campaign this fall,” she wrote. “We understand the city faces difficult budget choices every year, but we also know that investing in our city's future is a cause that can't wait.”

Nearly all the questions had to do with increasing “investments” in the school system including tax increases for preschool, funding universal preschool, and whether targeted or tuition based full-day K was acceptable. Other questions appear politically loaded – “Scientific studies show the human brain develops most rapidly in the earliest years between the ages of 0 and 5, but almost all the public money our city invests in children is after age 5. Do you think the district should change this and direct more to early childhood education programs like preschool?”

Hanson requested that candidates return the two-page form by Sept. 29.

In an email, Hanson confirmed that she endorsed “two close friends” who were “passionate about public service and decided to run,” but added that her “personal support and opinions of these candidates are mine alone.” She also stated that the org would be considering “possible organizational support” in 2017 to Concord candidates but that she did not have the authority to make decisions on candidate endorsements in New Hampshire.

After inquiring about the endorsements, the Facebook posts were reportedly taken off Hanson’s feed.

Other Candidates Respond

The three school board candidates who weren’t endorsed by Hanson but received the questionnaire had mixed responses to the situation and the framing of the questions.

Danielle Smith, another candidate running for the District A seat, confirmed that she received and did reply to the questionnaire. In an email, she added, "I look forward to an open discussion with all groups advocating for issues important to the school district and the community."

Barbara Higgins, another District B candidate, said she was disappointed that the city’s school board races were being mired by a hyper-politicized, single issue facing the system.

“The last thing the people of Concord need is politics,” she said. “What they need is people who are generally concerned about students and taxpayers. I’m concerned about the 4-year-olds and the 74-year-olds. It’s my job as a board member to consider the needs of both. I also feel that as a board member, it is my job to consider all of the other issues we deal with, not just full-day kindergarten. I am not a single-issue candidate.”

Tom Croteau, the incumbent District A candidate, wondered about SCAN’s process of endorsement considering the org’s lobbyist had already endorsed candidates.

"This raises questions about the fairness of this process,” he said in an email. “For example, why is the person who asked me to complete a questionnaire at the same time encouraging Concord residents to vote for one of my opponents? How can that process be considered legitimate?”

Will SCAN Influence The Race?

The organization, according to its website, is active nationwide with concentrations in Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington. During its first 18 months of activity in New Hampshire, the org spent around $700,000 to influence politicians to its cause, according to NHPR.

SCAN spent $88,000 backing candidates that “pledged to increase investment” in pre-K education in Manchester’s municipal election cycle in 2015. The org also spent $431,000 backing Colin Van Ostern, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 2016 who got walloped by now-Gov. Chris Sununu. The governor signed full-day kindergarten with a Keno financing mechanism into law earlier this year.

The org was also criticized last year for alleged collusion for issuing an independent mailer backing Van Ostern and Republican candidate Jeanie Forrester which was sent from the same Depot Street office of Dennehy & Bouley, a lobbying firm whose partners backed both of the endorsed candidates – but representatives scoffed at the accusation.

But when it comes to Concord’s historically low turnout for municipal races – barely above 15 percent some years – endorsements as well as any money spent, could influence outcome.

Earlier this year, state Sen. Dan Feltes, D-Concord, during the board’s discussion about full-day K, paid for at least two citywide mailers encouraging residents to go to meetings and advocate for full-day K.

Individual donations to candidates for the board aren’t tracked like city council, state, and federal races – and since board members are essentially volunteers (they get a stipend but it’s not a job like in most communities in the United States) – most candidates don’t spend a lot of money running. But independent expenditures for school board candidates as well as any money spent during this year’s Keno ballot question would need to be reported to the state.

Can The City Afford Full-Day K And Preschool?

Earlier this year, the school board, while torn, ultimately decided against raising the school portion of property taxes in Concord by about 8 percent to fund a full-day K program – about a $1.2 million permanent tax increase. Instead, the board raised taxes by about 5 percent and laid-off teachers to get to an $85 million budget for the year.

While it is unknown exactly what universal preschool would cost the taxpayers of Concord, estimates from a 2016 study of full-day K, a half-day preschool program for 4-year-olds, as well as child care, came in at more than $1.8 million – estimates that some believe is low. Paying the cost for just a few of the programs SCAN is requesting candidates to advocate for would require a permanent property tax increase of another 8 to 10 percent – on top of already pretty high property taxes now.

This financial data doesn't address another issue – where to house all the new classrooms and children and how much money will be needed for extra infrastructure costs.

Currently, the district does offer preschool programs through the regional tech center and special education but they have a tuition-based component to the programs, according to officials. Other Concord children are schooled in private facilities with parents bearing the costs.

Part of the problem with implementing full-day K and/or universal preschool is that the $90.8 million elementary school consolidation project left little room for expanding programs. When the district consolidated from eight schools to five, the new schools were essentially obsolete when they opened. There is room on the footprint of Beaver Meadow and Broken Ground-Mill Brook for expansion but that could possibly cost millions. New class space would be needed for an estimated 180 children for the half-day preschool across the district, an additional 288 students who are currently in half-day, or as many as 16 new classrooms and eight teachers, according to the previous study.

School officials are floating the idea of moving fifth-graders to a new Rundlett Middle School when and if one is built – which should free up space in the elementary schools for full-day K but not preschool.

However, with taxes already rising year after year, the district’s annual multi-million debt service tied up into paying off the elementary schools through 2041, and already high property taxes that were raised again without a full-day K program, the school board hasn’t decided whether or not to build a new middle school.

The board, however, has been studying the matter.

At a meeting on Sept. 27, officials eyed proposals for both a new or partially renovated middle school with price tags ranging anywhere from $50 million to $84 million, according to the Concord Monitor. The two proposals for a middle school including fifth-graders both came in at $84 million.

School image and screenshot of questionnaire via Tony Schinella, Patch staff; screenshots of endorsements were reader submitted.