HB1331

Derry School board is doing a good job. This is a bad idea because this town has no experience with school matters.

I oppose HB 1331 because allowing a single town to absorb a cooperative school district undermines regional stability and risks harming smaller communities that rely on shared governance. Cooperative districts exist to ensure equitable, predictable public education; unilateral restructuring threatens that balance and increases inequity.

I listened to discussion for this bill. The sponsor wants to be like Manchester and Nashua, allowing 7 people ultimate say. I find that absurb. Changing to a city structure takes away our local control. Our structure has worked well for us considering the issues with inflation, soaring health care costs and a state legislature that insists on going against properly funding vital public services. Strongly oppose

We need to educate the kids, and turning control of that to people who have actively worked to divert funds from our kids, who won't abide by the legal mandate to educate them, won't help them in any way shape or form.

I urge you to oppose this bill, as it will remove necessary boundaries between school districts and towns, creating conflicts in priorities and budget planning. These separations and separate boards are intentional and needed.

Good morning, As a resident of Derry for the past 40 years, I stand against this bill for several reasons. First, while I am not knowlegable on the full history of laws in the state of NH, I beleive this bill sets an undue precedent of making laws specific to one municipality. I am unaware of any law the sets rules for only one town, is this the path the legislature should set itself forth on? Should the state endeavor itself to carve out rules for singular towns? Second, Derry has a unique structure to the management of town and schools. Our town has adopted a town council form of government. This structure gives the town council (7 members) full legislative and governing authority over town policy, budget, and organization. This does not allow taxpayers to vote for or admend the budget . Meanwhile our cooperative school district is a SB2 form of government. This allows our taxpayers to not only elect a school board of 7 , it also allows for multiple opportunities of public input and voter control in the process. This bill allowing the absorbtion of school district would effectivley remove the current ability of Derry taxpayers to participate actively in the budget process. Third, it Has been pointed out many times in the past how different the administration of town operations and school operations are. I believe the intent of seperation of the two in our laws and governing practices is an agknowlegement of this. The differences are so vast that past testimony in multiple committee hearings have included admistrative proffessionals that testified how nearly impossible it is to change careers between the two. This bill would add on to the resposibility of the town council a new administrative task that differs from the town rules and regulations. This would naturally lead to mistakes being made with potentially legel repercussions. Forth, while this bill prescribes manners in which the town could absorb the school district, it does not give any manner in which the transition could be reversed. This would potentially put the town of Derry in a position in which it would need further legislation at the state level to undo the consolidation in the event it does not work as inntended. Fifth, while I question the current motives , I beleive it to be an attempt to remove control from school board and place it in hands of current town council members. But, I ask, what will happen when another faction takes control of council? what is the recourse if the town council with full control of budget, without public recourse, decides it wants increase budget dramatically. while many in town love pointing out that the town has a property tax cap, they often forget that it can be over-ridden by the town council if they see fit. This would potentially put taxpayers in Derry in a situation where our schools are drastically under funded , or taxes exponentialy increasing. Our only recourse in this situation would be to vote out the town council one at a time, potentialy taking multiple years before getting budget back in control. Thank you for your time Ben Cone

My children go to school in Derry, and I do want the whole town to decide what my children do or don’t do in school. As a resident please oppose this. This is in acceptable.

I oppose HB1331. The people of Derry overwhelmingly oppose this bill. I support their judgment and wishes, and I urge the committee to do the same and vote ITL.

I oppose HB 1331 because it allows the Town of Derry to absorb the Derry Cooperative School District without sufficient safeguards, transparency, or analysis of long-term impacts. This bill risks weakening local school governance, diminishing voter representation, and destabilizing funding and accountability for students and families. A decision of this magnitude should require clear standards, comprehensive financial and educational impact studies, and explicit protections for community voice, not a fast-track process. The legislature should not enable consolidation without ensuring it truly serves students, taxpayers, and democratic oversight.

This is an attempted power grab by one town over a cooperative school district. I oppose.

I would like to express my opposition to this bill. First, the two entities in question, the Derry School Board and Derry Town Council, have not expressed official interest in consolidation of the Town and School governments or requested enabling legislation. Second, the motivation behind this consolidation is likely an attempt to circumvent the methods available to apply a tax cap to the Derry Cooperative School District. Rather than propose a tax cap warrant article and give voters a direct choice, consolidation is an attempt to bring the schools under the Town's existing tax cap under the guise of operational efficiencies.

A cooperative school district defined as - group of school districts that collaborate to provide educational services, often sharing resources and expertise to enhance educational opportunities for students. These cooperatives can focus on various programs, including special education and vocational training, and are structured to benefit the participating districts collectively. I went to a regional high school and if one town held power over all the others we would have viewed that as unjust, undemocratic, perhaps authoritative. This bill would silence the voices of all the other town that commit their resources to the cooperative to ensure that they as a community give their children the best education possible. If this bill passes that removes all the voices of families and children that attend this school. A cooperative school should be allowed to hear from everyone in the community not just a singular town.

I have two points. #1 This bill makes no sense. There is no reason the town should "Absorb" the school district other than as a partisan power grab. This is clearly a move to try and overcome the will of the people who VOTED for the School Board members. The sponsors of this bill have tried to get their family members or themselves elected to the school board, and failed every time. Now instead of trying to win over voters they want to do an end run around them and try to completely dissolve the school board so they can try and take control via the town council. #2 Having a dedicated school board is BETTER for the town and the children. A dedicated school board is run by people ELECTED by the towns population, with the sole goal of making the Derry School District the best it can be. By "absorbing" it into the town, it will become just another cog in the large machine that is the town government. It will mean people less motivated are now in charge of the district. it also TAKES AWAY voter input. There are clearly differences between running a school and running a town government, they should be run by different people!

Taking away the rights of the town to elect a separate school board will further damage the public schools in Derry. The schools are already recovering from mismanagement with a new board and superintendent who are working to return our schools to the level New Hampshire expects and giving the town that control would further reduce funding meaning that school buildings would likely crumble and students and teachers would suffer the consequences such larger class sizes and reduction in services for those who need it most.

Do NOT approve this bill, turning over PUBLIC education to a few people who want to destroy our democratically created public education system to unqualified, self serving “ freedom fighters”. Public education serves our entire community, not the vocal few who sneak in bills like this when no-one is looking.

A town government should not make decisions and budgets for the school, an independent School Board should. Period.

Although I live in Epsom now, I grew up in Derry and still have family with students in the district. I strongly oppose this bill, as I understand the core of it comes from representatives with unpopular, overly conservative values that have not been able to get their way via the DCSD school board, and instead would like the opportunity to force their ideals by absorbing the district into the town and allowing town government to control curriculum and budgetary outcomes. There are many good reasons that school boards are separate from town boards and we should keep it that way.

I oppose this bill. I am currently an educator in training, specifically in early special education, therefore I believe parents and teachers should be apart of the decision process especially for their child. With this said "control" schools will be unable to best support each individual child need, and education instead creating a one size fits all district which is so false. If you have ever been in a classroom or child care center every child is different. Which means every decision should be different,

As a teacher and a resident of Derry, New Hampshire, I strongly oppose this bill.

I do not want to lose my right to vote on the school budget.

I fully believe it is far better to have a dedicated school board that can focus on the specific needs of the students and the system. This bill is simply trying to short circuit the required methods to make such a change - such as having a Charter Commission, the voters should elect members of the Commission, and the Commission should put their recommendations on the ballot following a series of public meetings.

The town does not have the band width to absorb the school district nor do the citizens of Derry want them to. This bill will hurt our town , turn away new families, and even drive current families out. As a parent of 2 elementary aged children, we trust our school board and district. Please oppose this bill.

This is a backdoor way for the town of Derry to pay for charter schools, A BIG NO FROM ME!!

This is a backdoor way for the town of Derry to pay for charter schools, A BIG NO FROM ME!!

This is a backdoor way for the town of Derry to pay for charter schools, A BIG NO FROM ME!!