attending a Nashua charter school. Right now we have about 7-8 bus runs that we run morning and afternoon for
children for both ASD and the new Micro Society Charter School. When ASD came about, we added two buses into
our budget. It costs about $90,000. Since then we have added additional routes from within existing buses. A
second area of responsibility is to provide special education services to any Nashua student attending a charter
school wherever that charter school may be. Primarily we’re providing services at this point to the Gate City Schools
for the Arts in Merrimack for Nashua students attending that school and to the Micro Society Charter School. Last
year we put in an allowance of $45,000 into our budget, actually for this year, so that we can begin increasing our
resources to enable us to serve children identified for special services in two additional locations. | would note for
the record that we do provide services to the charter schools. | would also note that we have a very good
relationship with our charter schools in Nashua. We recognize they are all Nashua students. In many cases, they
come back to Nashua schools. We have built a working relationship with the directors of those schools in both
resolving transportation issues and providing special education services.
Chairman Dowd
| would say on the custodian issue, that is in litigation and is probably not good to discuss in public comment. That’s
between the Board of Education and the union. | don’t think we need to comment on that.
Mr. Teeboom
Just a follow up, | understand that the public school provides transportation. I’m talking about the cost of the
student. If you establish a charter school, and that’s what you tried at one time, within a public school those charter
school students come in at a cost of $6,000 a student, not the $13,000 per student. | did the calculations, | sent
them to you. No one responded back to me. | showed a savings of $4.4 million for the 464 Nashua kids. You can
disagree and recalculate it you disagree, but | have not seen anybody disagree. That’s a substantial savings. A
final note, a charter school has to meet all the same federal laws. Charter schools must accept special education
kids. Charter schools are held to the same disability laws that created all the secondary school laws. The custodial
thing, it may be litigation, but the fact that it is, the school board | hope does not drop it. That’s another anywhere
from one to four million dollars in savings. Thank you.
Mr. Bob Sherman, President of the Teachers Union, 7C Taggert Drive
As far as eliminating secretaries, | wonder then who’s going then since we have security on all our schools and all
our doors, who is going to let individuals or parents in or out of the building. Who is going to take the phone calls
from parents that want to have their kids dismissed or want to get in touch with their kid in the schools? These are
all jobs that our secretaries indeed do. There’s a particular line item in the budget that all this information is going to
focus on. | want the public to be aware of the fact that Nashua is among the 100 most diverse cities in the United
States. It is No. 96 based on racial makeup, demographics and economic factors. More than 40 percent of Nashua
students qualify for free and reduced lunches. There are 55 different languages spoken in the homes of Nashua
students, which the Nashua School system needs to address. The New Hampshire state average school loan debt
is $33,410 which ranks us as number 2 in the nation. The portion of New Hampshire students with debt is 76
percent which ranks us number 1 in the nation. The average UNH graduate debt in 2014 was $36,965. That was
79 percent of the graduates. Therefore, the superintendent and the school committee have only $814,000 to
increase the department’s salaries which is to cover raises in administrative positions, principals, custodians,
secretaries, para-educators and the teachers whose contract ends at the end of August. This increase in the salary
account will not even cover the scheduled step increases listed in the present contract which steps in the last
contract were increased from 9 to 15 steps, a 67 percent increase for the number of years needed to reach the top
of the teacher pay scale. That still leaves 40 percent of our teachers at the top of the pay scale with no step pay
increase. There are over 100 teaching positions posted as being vacant in the system, which does not count for
those already filled by leaving or retiring teachers. Surrounding districts all have pay scales with steps that have
increased their steps and have not frozen them which has happened in Nashua. If the steps are not paid, the
teachers will move to districts that will live by their commitments of promised pay in the future for loyal service to that
district. Nashua in the 1990s was the best paying district in New Hampshire for teachers at the top and the bottom
of the step schedule. The average Nashua teacher salary for the 15-16 school years is $59,267, which is now
$2,651 over the New Hampshire state average of teachers’ salaries. There are 53 districts with higher average
teacher salaries in New Hampshire than Nashua including Amherst, Brookline, Concord, Hollis, Londonderry,
Manchester and Portsmouth. So | ask you: how does the board of education, this board of aldermen and the mayor
expect to attract and keep the best educated teachers graduating from the best colleges and universities with their
