NASHUA, NH – After deliberation, the Board of Alderman passed a motion to issue bonds not to exceed $8.5 million to fund additional renovation costs to Birch Hill and Main Dunstable Elementary schools.
The motion carried with 12 in favor – aldermen Michael O’Brien, Gloria Timmons, Melbourne Moran Jr., Thomas Lopez, Ben Clemons, Tim Sennott, Ernest Jette, Derek Thibeault, Patricia Klee, Richard Dowd, Shoshanna Kelly and Lori Wilshire. Aldermen Chris Thibodeau, Tyler Gouveia and John Sullivan opposed.
This was the third reading of the motion. The board re-referred the request to the budget committee on Feb. 13 after expressing concern and the need for answers from the Board of Education as to where the $4.5 million shortfall in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds went.
It has been determined that the money went to Franklin Street School. While Ward 8 Alderman Thibeault felt that accountability needed to be taken, he also does not think the money to fix the roofs on the elementary schools can wait.
“I’m open to other alternative ways to get this done now within the next month. … We only have so much time to figure out a way to pay for this unless we bond this $8.5 million. [The contractors] are in there working now … they’re not going to sit there and wait,” Thibeault said.
“I put accountability to the superintendent and if I was the board of education … I would look for someone else right now,” he added, citing other mistakes made by superintendent Mario Andrade.
Alderman O’Brien urged the board to take a step back and look at the matter at hand.
“The question that should be divided is do we want to fix the leak, and then afterward, if these other issues have merit, then let’s fully explore them as a board, but it’s not going to fix … the leaky roof,” he said.
Alderman Moran agreed to pass the bond, saying that adults should be held accountable not at the expense of the students.
“I’m not going to support not pushing this through to have kids sit in a leaky classroom,” he said. “It’s just not fair to the kids for what adults failed to do.”
Alderwoman-At-Large Shoshanna Kelly added that the cost to fix the roof is never going to cost less than it does right now.
Ward 9 Alderman Sullivan tried to create an amendment to lessen the bond before, but the amendment did not pass.
“I’m not going to support this tonight because once we support it then it goes away [and] there’s no accountability,” he said. “We say no to this, we are forced as a city to come up with a plan B and that’s what I think we should do. We should not put this back on the taxpayers. It’s not their fault,” Sullivan said.
“Just because we pass this tonight at the full $8.5 million does not mean that we have to spend that $8.5 million,” Alderman-At-Large Ben Clemons said. “As far as I’m concerned, this conversation doesn’t have to end tonight just because we authorize the money.”