Open Letter to the Newmarket Citizens and School Board

Newmarket School Board members Phil Nazzaro, Amy Tilton, Andrew Haemker, and Dan Smith have an ethical, moral, and legal responsibility to blow the whistle on the lies told under oath by school board chairman Gary Swanson and Superintendent Todd Allen described below, and to seek the removal of Swanson from the board and to terminate Mr. Allen’s employment from the district.

On September 1, 2021, the Newmarket School District filed a 12-page Petition in Rockingham Superior Court seeking Declaratory Judgments and for Preliminary and Permanent Injunction against Right-to-Know advocate Jeffrey Thomas Clay, asking the Court, among other things, to declare the school district did not have to provide public documents to Mr. Clay. The Court responded on May 4th, 2022, dismissing the school district'sPetition and admonishing the district, reminding the district of their obligations under NH Right-to-Know.

On March 8, 2023, the Newmarket School District filed a 67-page Counterclaim against Mr. Clay raising the same issues raised in their 2021 complaint but with a twist: this time the school district asked the court to declare Mr. Clay a public nuisance in order to prevent the district from having to prevent Mr. Clay from inspecting public records he requested to inspect but which the district still has not provided.

Regarding the two lawsuits above, Newmarket School Board Chairman Gary Swanson swore under oath, that he has never discussed these legal claims with anyone, and that the School Board never discussed or took any votes regarding these legal claims.

Newmarket School Superintendent Todd Allen, likewise, stated under oath that he never discussed or made any decisions regarding any of the allegations against him, Swanson, or the District with anyone except conversations he had with legal counsel and that all recommendations regarding the allegations came from legal counsel.

In other words, former superintendents Susan Given’s and current superintendent Todd Allen filed these lawsuits unilaterally, without ever discussing them with the school board or receiving authorization from the board to do so. Problem: school superintendents have no legal authority to file lawsuits without school board approval. Moreover, Newmarket school board police specifically identify the school board as the legal authority in such matters.

Of course, the School Board was never really left in the dark; the good people of Newmarket, those paying the bills, these are the ones who have been left in the dark. Swanson, Allen, and the rest have all acted unethically, immorally, and criminally in their ongoing attempt to cover up violations of Right-to-Know Laws by the district and all of the crimes committed in this pursuit and all at taxpayer expense.

Jeffrey Thomas Clay