By Chris Paul
On March 8, voters will have the opportunity to vote in two new School Board members. We asked each why they would be the best choice for the two positions available.
There are two residents running for the one, two-year seat and three running for the one, three-year seat.
Voting will take place at the Londonderry High School Gym from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Two-Year Candidates:
Amanda Butcher,
Perspective, Communication, and Collaboration.
We moved to Londonderry eight years ago, like many of you, for the schools. My kids are in fifth and third grade this year. As a parent and an educator, I care deeply about ensuring that all of our children have the support they need to receive the best possible education. While we should always strive for growth and improvement, I want to recognize that we have it really good here. Our students who go through our Londonderry schools go off to pursue wonderful things. This is a testament to our educators.
I have worked in schools for just short of fifteen years. I earned my M.Ed. while working my way through college as a paraprofessional. In my current role as an educational and behavioral consultant, I collaborate with parents, administrators, teachers, and paraprofessionals to help solve problems and effect positive change. This requires an understanding of everyone’s priorities, use of evidence-based intervention and methods, and data to drive objective decision making. There is so much more to education than standardized testing. We need to meet kids where they are at. This multifaceted perspective is what makes me different.
In my experience, the foundation of working together toward a common goal is effective communication. This means listening to, and understanding, perspectives and facts before acting. This is what our community needs. Masking is currently optional and I support this. Like everyone else, I hope that with a better understanding of Covid and a less severe variant, we can keep masks off. A petition to end masks, which ignores the federally and state recommended covid mitigation matrices designed by public health professionals, however, is shortsighted. It does not consider the perspective of medically fragile families, those who have lost loved ones to this virus, or the fact that our situation could change in the future. Our priorities as a district should be ensuring students and staff members are safe, while keeping our schools open for in-person learning.
Something I think we can all agree on is that we want the best experiences and opportunities for our kids. Mutual respect and common civility play an important role in accomplishing this and in moving forward together. When I spoke with educators in our schools, the impact that community discourse has on them was one of the common themes. It was mentioned that we can’t even have our students and their teachers share their accomplishments at meetings anymore. We have a great opportunity to collaborate better, and model this behavior for our kids so we can restore the culture of our town.
My professional experience, perspective, collaborative style, and ability to communicate are what we need to move forward, and what makes me the best candidate for this role.
Timothy Porter,
My name is Tim Porter and I am running for the Londonderry School Board. The main reason I decided to run is the large vested interest I have in seeing our School District regain its reputation of excellence. I was born and raised in Londonderry. My family established roots here when my parents arrived in town 44 years ago. My wife and I both graduated from Londonderry High in 1999 and decided to raise our three children here in town in large part because we were proud of the education we received from the Londonderry School District. My four brothers and their combined five children also attend Londonderry schools.
I have attended almost all School Board meetings over the past two years. While doing so, I have taken a more in-depth look into the statistics of the district and found glaringly negative trends. We have a massively growing budget weighing on all taxpayers while our student population has actually consistently been dropping and, most importantly, while our academic proficiency has declined. To justify the expense of our School District, which makes up over 70% of our town’s annual property tax burden, these trends need to be reversed.
I am a local business owner here in Londonderry. I specialize in family and small business financial and retirement planning and investment management. It is my job to help our clients achieve their financial goals in the most efficient manner possible. We also have a family tax practice where the focus is on helping those clients keep their annual tax burden at a minimum. I believe that the professional expertise I have developed over the course of the past 20 years makes me uniquely qualified as a candidate to assist with our School District’s current issues.
Londonderry has one of the largest populations of citizens aged 55-plus in the entire state of NH. This means we have one of the largest contingents of seniors that help bear the burden of our School District budget almost entirely without having a child in any of our schools. This is the demographic most likely to be restricted to a fixed income and hurt the most financially when taxes increase. This is all the more reason we need to search for ways to bring these costs down while achieving higher levels of academic proficiency.
For two years now, within our schools our children and staff have been forced to contend with an abnormal and sometimes negative learning environment due to pandemic restrictions. This has led to detrimental effects both academically and socially within our schools. It is imperative we restore a normal, positive academic environment in which our students, teachers, and staff can thrive.
As a School Board member, I will be cognizant of the fact this is an elected position and I should be a voice of the voting taxpayers of Londonderry. I appreciate your consideration and hope to earn your vote on March 8. Find me at Facebook.com/PorterforSchoolBoard or email at PorterforSchoolBoard@gmail.com. Thank you.
3-Year Candidates:
Kevin Gray,
I feel very passionately about public education and I have a deep respect for public school teachers and administrators. This passion started early, as a student and product of Public school education. In addition, through the teachers in my family, I saw firsthand the hours of preparation, passion, and dedication that is poured into their work. Witnessing this after hour commitment, often flying under the radar, developed a deep appreciation for all that educators do. I believe that the school board, as a conduit to the community, should work in a collaborative measure to ensure the public school district is thriving, with effective use of the school budget, by supporting the teachers and administration.
In my professional career as a director and software architect, I work at the apex of multiple teams, striving to align approaches and determine long-term direction. This is effectively what the school board is tasked with in regards to the school district.
The job of the school board requires gathering data, talking to people knowledgeable in varying areas and weighing short term costs against long term benefits. Decisions must be based on experts’ advice along with the balance of budget and the community needs and wishes. It is a sounding board that is receptive to often divisive ideals and hot topic debates, but ultimately they are elected to consider the best plan forward that will keep the community safe, financially healthy, thriving, and united. This is a long and hard list no doubt, but I feel I have the temperament, the passion, and the level headedness to be a beneficial team player, working for the school board to speak as a united front, representative of the community with its best interest at heart, all through open and collaborative dialogue.
There has been a noticeable shift in some attitudes to a more adversarial stance, and I can categorically state that never once in all my years in business has that approach or mentality lead to a well functioning team or company success. We definitely need to do better than that. I think I have a disposition that unites people and I bring proposals that are a happy medium to the table.
I am heavily involved within the community, specifically around youth sports and schools. I believe in being actively vested in our town, since this is where my wife and I chose to move to raise our boys. I currently head coach, coordinate or assistant coach more than six teams in town, and that number moves based on need. I’m also the PTA president for North School, where I have had the privilege of serving at the intersection of administration, teachers, and parents. If I am elected to the School Board, I intend to continue to foster these lines of respectful communication.
I am asking for your support on March 8, because I know I can bring the same professional success, collaborative problem-solving, and rational voice to benefit the School Board and public education here in Londonderry
Rachel Killian,
Two years ago I decided I wanted to give back to the town that welcomed my son and I so many years ago. I publicly committed to running for school board this summer. I started my campaign early to ensure I had enough time to get to know the community, answer questions and get a feel for the priorities and concerns our citizens have. Since then I have taken time to personally meet with teachers, administrators, students, community members and parents.
It’s time we rebalance the system of checks and balances between the board and district office. A seven year trend in dropping achievement data, correlated to consistently raising spending is incredibly troublesome.
A vote for me will be a vote for transparency, accountability and change. I have been a vocal advocate for parents rights, fiscal responsibility, academic rigor and sensible spending. It’s time to evaluate the policies and school board charter. The school board charter has not been reviewed since 1989. We need policies that hold the board members and district office accountable to the community.
I have over 17 years of experience in education. I spent 10 years in various roles in the K-12 sector. The last seven years I have spent on quality assessment and curriculum design and in transformative change in higher education. I invite you all to learn more about me and my proven track record of showing up, and being a voice for the community by visiting my website- http://rk4londonderry.com or email killian4schoolboard@gmail.com
On March 8, I ask for you to cast a vote for change- vote for Racheal Killian. I thank you for for your support and look forward to serving you.
Tracey Ramshaw
I am an educator of 25 years with an MEd. in Special Education but being a mom is my first job. I am the proud mother of four children who are all being raised in the town of Londonderry and are either in the school system or have graduated from it. My three children that are currently enrolled are in elementary school, middle school, and high school. I have the advantage of seeing how these three different schools are run and can offer a viewpoint, as a parent, from each school. I am passionate about education and the town of Londonderry. I am running for Londonderry School Board not because I think we have a broken school system or school board but because I feel some areas of our school system appear to have taken a backseat to the COVID crisis. Remote learning, limited attendance at all sorts of events, and of course the infamous mask debate are all temporary problems that seem to be dividing our town. I believe looking past all of that is in the best interest of our students.
I would like to see special education student success as a top agenda item. These students and families deserve the best that Londonderry has to offer and I do not think we are quite there yet. I think teaming up with the NH Department of Education and implementing additional programs and staffing will ensure that this group of individuals are successful. Our underperforming special education students must be a priority in Londonderry. Additionally, I would like to see the Londonderry school system invest in programs that are designed to assess the mental health of our students. By providing students with mental health screeners, we can reach students who wouldn’t otherwise be able to express how they are feeling. With these services in place we can get students the help they need and never leave a student feeling alone and helpless.
On March 8 I ask for your support in the election. Together we can work to make our children our top priority.