I’ve often asked people to be involved in the voting process.  I’ve tried to point out the value in voting and the necessity of making your voice heard in the election process.  I’ve also tried to make people understand that their local elections are possibly even more important than national elections regarding their day to day lives.  With the presidential election primaries happening now I thought I would discuss voting once again.  This time I’m going to share with you one of the most important civics lessons I ever learned and hope you make a New Years resolution to become more involved in your government and most especially to vote.

In the ninth grade I took a class entitled Comparisons of Political and Economic Systems.  My teacher was an energetic bearded man who, on the very first day of class, wrote his name on the board in foot high letters and told us we would never forget it because it was the first three letters in the ideal society.  His name was Mr Uto.  As he promised, I never forgot his name – but not for the reasons he expected.

One of our very first assignments was to elect someone to be class president.  There were three candidates to choose from.  The class was split into districts based on where we actually lived in the city.  Some districts were represented by large groups of students and other districts had just one or two students in each.  We started the process by going home and talking to our parents about issues for our section of the city and bringing those issues into class to discuss with the other students in our districts.  We presented the candidates with our concerns for the city in general and for our areas in particular.  The candidates in turn spoke with the groups and presented their platforms.

I don’t remember all of the details, as it has been a while since I was that 13 year old high school freshman, but there were various constraints placed on the candidates so they couldn’t simply decide to solve every issue for every district.  Two of the candidates did the math like any politician would; they determined quickly which districts they needed votes from to win the election and pandered to the issues in those areas and ignored many of the smaller districts.  One candidate worked hard and did his best to balance the needs from each district – including the smaller districts ignored by the other candidates.

On Election Day we cast our ballots.  I planned to vote for the third candidate – the one who worked the hardest for everyone – but at the very last moment I let my desire to be one of the “popular kids” cloud my judgment and I voted for someone else.  That someone else won by exactly one vote.  My vote.  If I had voted my conscience instead of going along with the crowd the tie would have forced another vote and perhaps a different outcome to the election.

I have never forgotten that lesson.  My vote matters.  I will also never cast it carelessly.  I only cast votes for people I truly want to represent me in their offices.  That is why I did not cast all nine of my possible city council votes nor did I cast three votes in the school committee race.  I know many people are disenfranchised with the voting process and I can understand why they feel that way.  To those people I implore you to take your dissatisfaction to the polls this November and at every opportunity thereafter and remind the politicians they are answerable to all of us – not just those groups they pander to because they are more vocal or populous than others.  If everyone eligible to vote did so I believe we would be able to effect real change in our leadership.

If you’re not familiar with Haverhill’s PAC they are an organization of parents with special needs children, or children with IEP’s or 501′s.  If your child has either of those education plans in place or you’re struggling with getting your child tested to determine if they need one of those plans then this group could offer you support and information.

There are two meetings on January 18th which may be relevant to you or someone you know.  Please pass the information along!

The first meeting is:

Sensory Strategies for the Home and Community Settings

A brief overview of sensory integration, with sharing of strategies that can be used in a variety of settings.

Speaker:Leigh, Leslie

When: January 18, 2012

Time: 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Where: Haverhill Public Schools

Special Education Department

45 Fountain Street

Haverhill, MA 01830

Any questions or concerns, please call the Special Education Department at 978-374-3435

The second meeting is:

For the new year many people make resolutions.  They resolve to eat healthier or exercise more or finally tackle a project around the house.  Maybe you resolved to find a job that you really love or to go back to school and tackle a dream.  I’m asking parents to consider a resolution that involves their children – to teach them about money.

Over the last six years I’ve volunteered and worked in schools around Haverhill in a variety of ways.  I’ve chaperoned field trips, been the lunch monitor, organized field days and breakfasts and doled out slushes to students.  I’ve also volunteered at both school store events and book fairs.  This year was very eye opening in that very few of the students seemed to know anything at all about how to handle money.

In the earliest days of my volunteer time at school I didn’t stress much over the kids not really being able to count money or make change because I worked with kids in the Crowell school which is K-2.  I wasn’t surprised kindergartners had difficulty counting out their money – I expected it.  These kids are just learning number sense so here was an opportunity to help teach them.  The other volunteers and I spent time working on coin recognition and value.  We carefully counted out coins and counted back change so the students could learn what they had, what they bought and what that left them.

As time went on we watched these kindergartners blossom into second graders who arrived at the store events with their money ready.  They knew what they wanted and how much it cost.  Some of them even knew how much they would get back as change after they bought their items!

This year I’m working with a different set of students.  I spent time as cashier for Golden Hill’s holiday store and Nettle’s book fair.  I wasn’t surprised the littlest students didn’t know how much money they had or if they would get change back but I was mortified by the middle school students who came to me with hand-fulls of  money and no real idea what they had.  One student handed me a $20 bill for a $7 book and skipped off leaving his change behind.  Most students who got coins as change dumped them into the trash.  Many students came to me surprised they couldn’t afford their purchase because they were operating under the assumption that a book labeled $6.99 was $6 instead of $7.  When I asked one student for $.50 she just kept handing me coins until I had almost $2 in my hand.  I stopped her from handing me more and showed her what $.50 was – then she admitted she didn’t know how to use coins – only paper dollars.  If we want to know why our students perform poorly on math MCAS this money experience explains much.

In our home dealing with money is the opportunity to have two different conversations with our children: one about math and one about values.  When we are in the toy store and the children want things we talk about whether or not they can afford the items.  They now understand that $1.99 is essentially $2 instead of $1.  They also ask about tax.  I don’t expect them to be able to multiply 6.25% in their heads – they are 8 and 10 – but I do expect them to be aware there is a tax on their items.  The values conversations are about need vs want.  We also talk about how I can take them out for a restaurant meal or I can buy food we cook ourselves that would feed them for 10 meals.  Or we talk about how they already have very similar items at home – what special need would this serve.  Sometimes I just remind them they were saving for a goal – and how much further away this purchase would put their goal.  We talk about their future too and what kind of life they might want to lead and how running a grown up household works.  Do they always make the choice I hope they will make – no – but we talk about it and they do learn.

So please – resolve to talk to your children about money.  Let them know your values on money.  Teach them how to make change.  Help them understand the impact tax has on their spending power.  Give them this gift to help them be successful in their adult life.

I wanted to boost the signal on this Boston Globe article about the Hunking Middle School.  I especially wanted people to read the following:

Hunking’s heating, ventilation, and drainage systems have collapsed, according to the report prepared by AECOM structural engineer Bob Hajjar. In addition, the building’s crawl space is contaminated by asbestos, the roof is in disrepair, and the school’s electrical system has “fallen to the earth floor,’’ the report states.

Hajjar’s concluding remark – “Long-term occupancy of this school building is not recommended due to the continued deterioration of the floor and roof system beyond the extensive disrepair currently present’’ – caused an outcry. About 150 parents banded together and demanded that city leaders commit to resolving the problems.

I hope the citizens of Haverhill can internalize the message in the second paragraph – “Long-term occupancy of this school building is not recommended.”  We all know it will take time to build a new school to replace this one but that process cannot be put off any longer.

I’ve heard rumors that they considered temporarily housing the students at Crowell and sending the existing Crowell students somewhere else, presumably Golden Hill.  I don’t think people realize how small Crowell really is.  There are 10 classrooms and the lunch room can only accommodate three tables.  The almost 500 students at Hunking would not fit in such a small space.  Cogswell is no more accommodating and hasn’t been used as a school in so long that I cringe to think of how much money would be needed to make it functional and safe for students again.

In light of the lack of in-district space large enough to house the student body of Hunking I am not surprised at this Eagle Tribune article recommending shoring up the existing structure until a new facility is built.  And as much as I’d love to live in a world where money didn’t matter the cost of renting and retrofitting retail space seems above the means of our district as well.  I do hope the State acts on the requests made in a timely fashion and allows us to move forward with this project.

At December’s District Parent Council meeting we were shown some of the pictures of the Hunking School to help understand why the HPSOS group and our School Committee were seeking a new school instead of simply repair and rehab for the existing structure.  I’m posting some of those pictures here to help give the residents of Haverhill a better idea of the decay beneath the Hunking School.  While I find the situation at Hunking upsetting – I wonder how many of our other structures have their own structural faults that are yet to be made public.

Here we have a view into the crawlspace under the school where you can see how much of the concrete has eroded leaving exposed rebar and chunks of concrete on the floor.  You can also see the ducting has fallen from the ceiling of the crawlspace.

Here is another photo of what I believe is rebar that was exposed by decaying concrete and has fallen from the ceiling.

This is a support column beneath the school which is cracked and shedding layers of something.

The stress on the school from the lack of support below and the additional weight of last winter’s heavy snow shows itself in this beam separating.  Eventually that bolt will not be able to hold the beam together.

Stresses on the building also appear as these cracks between the blocks used to make the walls.

I don’t know exactly what the plan is from here.  The School Committee and the City Council have submitted everything they need to the state so the project can be reviewed and the state can decide what funding assistance Haverhill qualifies for.  Once the financial aspect of the project is secured then the building or repairing will begin.  Neither solution is speedy and these students need to be safely housed during the process.  Having seen these pictures and more of the wreckage beneath the Hunking School I cannot imagine shoring that up to be the better choice.  Haverhill does have a history of making pennywise yet pound foolish decisions about its school buildings however – the HHS renovation being one of them.  I hope we can work together to get a quality building built and not a band aid fix.

The second issue I wanted to discuss related to the November 17th School Committee meeting is the Hunking School.

Sue Danehy made some very excellent points about how the School Committee and the HPSOS group needs to proceed in order to unite the population of Haverhill regarding replacing the Hunking School.  She attended the Massachusetts Association of School Committees seminar and brought their advice and intent to work with Haverhill to Thursday’s meeting.  She stated that the population needs to be informed, meetings need to be televised, pictures need to be taken and posted wherever possible, social networking sites needed to be used, all building issues need to be honestly presented and assessed, transparency needed to be present at every stage to truly engage and educate the public and inspire within them the confidence that this issue and their tax monies are being handled appropriately.  I agree with those assessments and am going to offer a couple pieces of advice.

I’m what Mr Scully considers a “pitbull parent” and I know I’m frustrating to him but I’ve been attending meetings all around the district, volunteering in the schools, donating to and working on fundraisers, being active on the PTO and Site Councils at my children’s schools for six years now.  For most of those six years I’ve also been working very hard at trying to recruit more parents to be involved not just in their child’s class but in the district as a whole.  Parents have a unique kind of tunnel vision when dealing with school issues that I cannot understand.  Parents of elementary students lobby to destroy funding for middle and high school items forgetting their children will one day arrive at those schools to find decimated programs and rundown facilities with a dearth of supplies!  We need to come together as a community and work to meet everyone’s needs as realistically as possible or we will forever be divided and no one will get any of their needs met.

I’ve known about problems with the Hunking School for a number of years.  I’ve often wondered why the parents of students at Hunking School weren’t already organized and seeking help for the building.  I understand the need for a new building and do support that process but:

If you’re going to be a group that has named itself for the entire Haverhill School community – please do not dismiss any mention of problems at other buildings as not as important as the physical problems at Hunking.  Air quality is poor in a number of other buildings, roofs leak across the district, one school recently had an infestation of what I believe were termites, maintenance and custodial issues abound.  If people want to commiserate on the commonality that our buildings are not properly maintained – let them!  This is an opportunity to engage people and make them understand your plight and be sympathetic and supportive to it.  If you shut them down all you will do is further alienate people against your issues.

If you’re going to present yourself as a group interested in “Shaping our Schools” this implies doing more than just overseeing that Hunking gets replaced.  Become aware of all of the issues facing the city and its schools and offer meaningful solutions on how to balance competing needs.  Recognize the difficult balancing act that funding really is and the time truly involved in getting a building built.

If you’re going to “attend every meeting until a new school gets built” then please stay to the end of every meeting.  Leaving en masse after your issue is addressed says that you don’t really care about the district – you just want your school built.  Yes I know people have jobs/kids/other commitments but surely you can organize a rotating contingent of your group that stays for the entire meeting.  I can’t make every meeting myself but I do record them all and watch them from beginning to end.  Every time there is a group there for an issue and they all leave right after they make comments or after their agenda item is handled it undermines their credibility in my eyes.

Sort out which issues are related to the structural deficiencies at Hunking vs which issues are maintenance and custodial in nature.  The cracks in the walls and the moving of the entire sixth grade was a sudden development that triggered the need for a new school.  The field has never drained properly and you should have been clamoring for that to be fixed long before.  Likewise with the non-locking bathroom doors and air quality issues.  These things didn’t begin this summer – this is just no one paying attention until something really big happened.

Not everything that happens at Hunking School is related to the building.  When 8 out of the approximately 100 staff gets a rash on leaf pickup weekend that looks like poison ivy and none of the hundreds of students at the school report a rash perhaps it is just poison ivy.  Until a doctor determines what the rash is or what caused it going to the paper is premature and ultimately undermines the credibility regarding the need for a new Hunking.  You don’t want the voting public looking at articles in the Eagle Tribune and ignoring the very real structural problems when they make their decision whether or not to shoulder an extra tax burden.

I will be following this issue as it progresses and I’m sure I will be writing again.  I’d love to be able to post pictures of the damage at the schools and help spread awareness of the depth of the problems that face both the Hunking School and the district as a whole.  I hope our City Council votes soon to establish their own “Statement of Interest” to help move the Hunking project forward.  I will be attending tonight’s Strategic Plan meeting to learn more about the district’s plan and expect a portion of that meeting to address the intent to build a new Hunking School.  I encourage everyone who lives in Haverhill to be knowledgeable on both school and city issues.  These problems affect everyone whether you have a child in the system now or not.  Do not be shortsighted.

Despite the short meeting – it barely lasted an hour and a half – I have a lot I wanted to say about the November 17 meeting of the Haverhill School Committee.  I will begin with the comments of Mr Zylkuski and the reaction of the School Committee.

Mr Zylkuski was the sole non incumbent in the School Committee election.  A parent of a recent HHS graduate and a current HHS sophomore, Mr Zulkuski and his family underwent the arduous process of learning how a campaign works and executing a very successful one.  He did not gain one of the three seats but he was very close competition for the three incumbents and I appreciate his efforts.

Mr Zylkuski came to the School Committee meeting to offer his congratulations to those who held onto their seats and to offer his continued support and involvement in the Haverhill Public Schools.  He also wanted to share some of what he learned on the campaign trail about what parents concerns were and about the business of politics in Haverhill.  Those last two items are what I would like to discuss further.

Parents are concerned and do notice when the members of the School Committee put forth written communication that is less than professional.  Whether that is in tone or content it reflects not only on the committee member who has written such drivel but also on the committee as a whole and on the Haverhill Public Schools.  While I realize texting has changed our casual written correspondence to the detriment of us all – professional correspondence, even emails, should be held to a higher standard!  This is especially true when such correspondence comes from people running our school system.

Mr Zylkuski politely alluded to a problem on Facebook whereby certain individuals owed the group looking to replace the Hunking School an apology.  Somehow I doubt one is forthcoming but I will clarify what I believe the matter was – as I ended up finding a group who I thought was going to be promoting good things for Haverhill but instead became a place to insult people and say “Toohey Tuesday” a lot.

Facebook is a wonderful tool and a fun place to catch up with the people in your various circles.  Most businesses and candidates and groups have a Facebook page.  If you want to be noticed publicly you need a Facebook page.  When the group of parents looking to replace the Hunking School created their group they named themselves “Haverhill Parents Shaping our Schools.”  I’ve seen this abbreviated to Haverhill Parents SOS or sometimes HPSOS.   They made a presence for themselves on Facebook.  In the closing days of the election another group made a page called “The REAL Haverhill Parents SOS.”  This group mostly asked people to vote and talked a lot about how wonderful Mr Toohey was.  Everything went along this fairly innocuous route until one of the members posted a video of a former school committee member from a number of years ago and insinuated she had endorsed candidates and through that endorsement those candidates were tainted.  Anyone who posted that perhaps this was inappropriate was accused of being negative or a child and dismissed by the group. Ultimately the group either deleted itself or Facebook forcibly deleted it – hopefully no one formed an opinion about the group looking to replace the Hunking based on the actions of that other group!

Mr Zylkuski addressed the issue of committee members receiving city benefits.  This is an issue I’ve mentioned many times before.  I think its inappropriate and I question the legality of the compensation package given to the School Committee.  I must look further into this.

Mr Zylkuski mentioned that he’d done the math and that statistically the Mayor, Mr Wood and Mr Toohey vote in agreement 97.3 percent of the time.  I don’t have the figures to check his math but anecdotal evidence based on my recollection over the last five years of attending and watching meetings and commenting on how the left side of the dias always seems to operate in lock step I’m willing to believe they vote together almost always.  How did the committee respond to this observation?  At the end of the evening there was a vote over paying some legal bills to an outside attorney.  Mr Wood voted no on the item while Mr Toohey and the Mayor voted yes.  Mr Wood then made a comments that “their percentage of block voting just went down.”  The Mayor continued the joke by saying he was shocked they voted against him 2.7% of the time.  After adjournment they were still making inappropriate comments against Mr Zylkuski’s message as they walked downstairs to executive session.

Everyone sits on that dais and expounds on how important parental involvement is.  I hear so often that its a mystery why parents don’t come out to events and meetings.  I’ve wondered myself sometimes what would motivate people to care.   I can understand more the reticence of people to come be part of a system where they will be mocked and undermined and insulted as soon as the opportunity presents itself.  I am very disappointed in the members of the committee who participate in this kind of childishness.

Voter turnout was higher than feared but disappointing nonetheless.  In Haverhill we cast 9,101 ballots out of a pool of almost 42,000 registered voters.  Approximately 23% of registered voters found the time to get to the polls and cast their votes.  The polls were open from 7am-8pm allowing for people to vote before and after work, or at lunch or while running errands or picking up coffee.  The weather was sunny and warm.  As I held a sign for Mr Zylkuski at Nettle School, I met a number of voters who walked to the polls to cast a vote and enjoy the weather.  When my husband and I voted, we took our children with us so not having someone to watch the children wasn’t an impediment to voting.  Some folks even brought their dogs to vote with them!  Yet 77% of voters didn’t bother showing up – that’s an incredible amount of voter apathy.

No one is surprised Mr Fiorentini earned a fifth term as Mayor.  His challenger did almost no campaigning until perhaps three weeks ago based on the posts made to her website.  If you’re planning to run against such a longstanding candidate – you really need to work much harder than this.  Such a difference from the hotly contested race two years ago with John Mitchitson.  Because of this – I can’t imagine all of the 2,239 votes Debra Campanile garnered were so much votes for her as votes against the incumbent.  510 voters cast a ballot but chose neither Mayoral candidate.

The City Council will look a bit different after January with John Mitchitson earning the most votes overall and therefore the Council President seat.  Longtime council member Dave Hall will no longer be on the dias, nor will one term council member Michael Young.  We do have Mike McGonagle returning to the council as well.  I had the opportunity to speak with Mr McGonagle and his wife while holding signs yesterday and I wish him well on the Council.

One question that still bothers me about the City Council is why we have 9 council members who are all “at large” and run to represent Haverhill as a whole.  With the diversity our city offers I think having representatives for the districts would allow for more groups to be heard from.  I understand some feel this would further divide the city but I believe our current system allows too many of our voices to be drowned out by the sheer number of constituents every council member is beholden to.  I also don’t understand why we have all 9 members of the council up for election every two years yet we only have half of the school committee up for election at any one time.

School Committee came in about as expected; incumbents Toohey, Danehy, and Wood held onto their seats.  We should be thankful to Mr Zylkuski for running for School Committee and allowing the race to have a challenger.  I would have been disappointed by having three candidates running for three seats with no one to hold their feet to the fire and make them work for their votes.  I’d also like to point out that the votes were very close – only 526 votes separated the top vote getter, Shaun Toohey, from the fourth place challenger, Gene Zylkusky.

For now the signs will disappear from yards and street corners.  A small campaigning lull will fall until the cycle begins in two years.  Perhaps in the intervening time, we can energize the people of Haverhill and double voter turnout for the next election cycle.

This article in the Eagle Tribune about the lack of votes cast by School Committee candidate Gene Zylkuski gave me a lot to think about this morning.  I will admit that my knee jerk reaction was one of annoyance.  Its the same annoyance I feel when any person tells me they don’t vote.  I wish everyone voted.  I wish everyone cared enough about what was happening around them to research issues and cast not just votes but informed votes.  I could rant forever about how people toss away one of the most important rights granted by the constitution and thus give their voice away as well.

After thinking further about this issue I’ve come to the conclusion that my annoyance was misplaced.  During my entire voting tenure I have tried very hard to encourage people to vote.  I’ve been very clear that I don’t care if you vote my preferences on issues and candidates but please cast the most informed vote you possibly can for whichever side you believe in.  I look at this issue therefore as something finally encouraged Gene to become active in the political process happening in his town.  Not only did he decide he would cast a vote this fall but he decided to undertake the task of running for office in his town.  I can speak to personal experience that this is a daunting task!  Being educated on issues, raising money, talking to voters (who don’t all like the position you’ve taken) and wading through our very entrenched incumbent minefield are activities one does not undertake lightly.

So, instead of tossing Gene’s candidacy to the wolves as unimportant because of his lack of voting – perhaps we should embrace him and ask him to work with us to help bring people who have previously been disenfranchised by the politics at hand back to being active, informed, voting citizens of Haverhill!  Instead of vilifying him and sending a message to the voters that if you’ve not been part of the process previously you’re now unwelcome – lets instead say “I don’t know what brought you, but we’re happy you’re finally here!”

Just wanted to share this information about the Halloween Walk for Ipads which had been scheduled for last weekend.  The storm forced a delay but the walk is on for this coming weekend.  Here is the information I received:

The Rotary and Kiwanis Halloween Walk is rescheduled for this Sunday, November 6th from noon to 4pm, beginning and ending at The Lasting Room on Washington Street. Walkers arrive anytime between 12 and 3 so all will finish by 4. Wear your Halloween costumes one more time…except for Steve Doherty.

The 1.5 mile course will take you down Washington St., Merrimack St. over the Basiliere Bridge into Bradford, down Middlesex St. over the new Rail Trail, onto So. Pleasant St., back into Haverhill via the brand new Comeau Bridge and back down Washington St.

Along the route you will stop at seven locations to pick up a playing card. When you return to The Lasting Room adults play their best poker hand and children play their best “as many of a kind hand” for prizes.

Stops include: Phoenix Row Elderly Housing Haverhill Bank, Ocasio’s Martial Arts, Arthur Sharp Hardware, Pentucket Bank booth on the Rail Trail, Mals II Barber Shop, and The Lasting Room.

We are raising money to purchase I Pads for Haverhill High which will eventually contain all their text books and eliminate the need to buy new text books every few years.

The cost is a very reasonable $10pp, $5 per any student, under 5 free, no family will pay more than $25 for their whole family!

Our major sponsors are:Haverhill Bank
Pentucket Bank
Olympia Sports