Judging by the formatting of this article, I can see they had no computer classes when the author attended Portsmouth High. As for the exodus of teacher staff, it may just be because they saw a fatter paycheck in other towns where the union has a stronger grip on the taxpayers. The democrats had free reign for a long time in this town and we got deficit after deficit from our schools. Elect the democrats and bring back the annual request to override the tax increase cap because the schools can’t live within their budget. No thanks.

I rarely post here but this ridiculous spin comng from a person who served on the school committee and who's financial mismanagement I have spent the last two years cleaning is worthy of a fact based response. An operating surplus stood at over $2 million dollars as of June 30, 2012. This $2 million surplus was
unemcumbered, meaning it was not budgeted to be used or spent at that time.The
audited surplus as of September 2010 stood at approx $540,000 however much of it was budgeted to be spent leaving only $116k of unencumbered surplus. Indeed, the
majority of the committee including Marilyn King and Angela Volpicelli supported policy decisions that created the $2M surplus. Many of those decisions involved negotiating sustainable union contracts. It is possible and it was done. When
you elect leaders that can count and understand finance the net result is what we have now. Suggesting that the closure of an elementary school contributed to thesurplus is ridiculous. Those school closing savings were already factored into the
budget, might I add that after a careful audit, the closing of Elmhurst school saved less than $50k.
Endorsed democrats made that very bad decision which also resulted in 4th grade
children being placed in a middle school environment. Not exactly a pro education or pro child move and it saved next to nothing.

Jonathan Harris, Vice Chair and Chair of Finance Portsmouth School Committee

One additional comment you failed to mention regarding Terri Cortvriend's past service on the school committee. In 2007 she motioned and voted for ( with Marge Levesque) lowering the retirement age of employees of the school system who participate in the town pension plan from age 60 to age 55. This action was taken even though the pension fund was grossly underfunded . This action further increased the Unfunded pension liability and extracted more funds directly from the school budget to pay for this.

There is quite an ideological difference in how the majority of the current school committee and Mr Croston sees things. We have hired some several very accomplished teachers over the last year and the selection committees who have hired the administration staff of very enthusiastic about our new leaders. They are all impressive and will bring Portsmouth schools to new heights. On the financial front, it must be terribly embarrassing to have put forth a tax referendum as the only financial solution to a projected school deficit only to see a group of competent people get elected , work together on a bipartisan basis and navigate a massive financial turnaround of the school system. Additionally, educational programs were enhanced and elementary art and music were immediately restored after being cut by the " endorsed democrats" in 2010. The numbers don't lie. The quality of Portsmouth schools are improving and that really can only be accomplished when you have your financial house in order.

Unfortunately for Mr. Harris the facts are not on his side; this may be the reason he attacks people's integrity first and tries to bully his politics. Again unfortunately, Mr. Harris' politics drives short-term gain at the expense of the entire system. Marge Levesque and Terri Cortvriend are honorable people that have served Portsmouth with distinction for many years. Correcting all his facts isn't as important as resident's realizing, before its too late, that we are loosing the high performing school district designation. Class sizes have been maximized to a point there are students sitting on floors and limited options to switch out to other sessions - how does that benefit our students or teachers long term? Special education has been cut deeply, so deeply that we now split special education teachers between grades AM to PM. We have experienced an exodus of experience and innovation with most of our senior administrators and teachers leaving. Suffice to say we are on the wrong course.

Surpluses benefited greatly from one-time State dollars principally from Federal programs associated with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These included higher reimbursement for Medicaid, Federal Jobs Fund, Restoration of General Revenue from the State, among others. These surpluses will be temporary as the State Aid formula will take $218,000 annually and cumulatively for the next 8 years. Portsmouth will loose over $2.1 million in annual State Education Aid by 2012

Dear Mr. Croston and Mr. Harris: Please save your " tit-for-tat" arguments for the SC meetings, not here! Save this space for the citizens and how THEY see it. It's a well known fact that the town has seen and will continue to see tremendous savings from the Elmhurst closing. Mr Harris:you were upset about the closing of what YOU considered an "elite" school...you lost that fight....now move on. If Portsmouth schools are so great (as you say) why do you send your children to private school? Most Town residents see you as a bully.....you have a propensity to disrespect employees both privately and publicly. I will agree that throwing more money at a problem does not fix it, but your solutions of robbing employees of a decent wage and gutting retirement/benefits etc., only serves to diminish the commitment that teachers and staff have toward the on-going benefit of the system. It is well known that you do not readily accept the hard work of sub committees and paid consultants unless their findings directly correlate with your personal feelings. Further, through scare tactics and the twisting of numbers, you have misrepresented the salaries that custodial staff receive and you changed numbers to reflect a bad pension balance ignoring the advice of actuaries. My vote on September 11 will be for anyone that you do not support.

In addition, surpluses have been driven from the closure of the Elmhurst School, special education changes, and contractual changes.

On April 7, 2010 and again one year later on April 26th, 2011 Dr. Lusi provided a a report detailing the savings from the closure of Elmhurst. She stated that the closing of Elmhurst had a one-time savings in FY 2011 of $418,168 and an annual savings of $454,268. In addition, over $2,000,000 in capital spending was averted in the closure. I hated to see Elmhurst close but the belief that "an audit" showed $50k of savings is wrong - whose audit? Mr. Harris has repeatedly stated that Dr. Lusi lied, similar to the attacks he now uses. BTW Mr. Harris sued the District to keep Elmhurst open stating an influx of Navy families, which never materialized.

On the referendum and surpluses, Mr. Harris attacked me at our last meeting because I dared question his presentation of the financial gains of the present school committee. If we were so concerned about the residents, why did we need a 3.6% increase in our town appropriation this year with $2.4 million in surplus - this equates to a 1.5% increase in the schools total budget. If we were so concerned about good fiscal management why did we gouge the Portsmouth taxpayer for an additional $1 million? Mr. Harris attacks me for the referendum but that increase would have been 1.5% as well. It is I who spoke out against the schools request hoping to save the Town $500,000.

Finally, contractually Marge Levesque and Dick Carpendar held the same line on the NEA contract as did this Committee. We need to work with our unions to assure we offer a competitive package that can attract the best teachers. Teachers are the system and we need to work together to look at a sustainable long-term partnership. I will give credit where it is due, this SC did ad a deductible which has saved the district $350,000 annually.

The voters will have the last say. I encourage parents, grand parents and well minded citizens to vote on September 11th. We are loosing the quality schools one has come to expect in Portsmouth. We need to reverse this direction. We need to respect our administrators, teachers and non-certified staff. It matters to everyone! There is a balance that needs to be maintained for quality schools which drives our home values. A small investment may benefit you in multiples of thousands in your property value.

Mr. Harris, I don't know how you possibly state with a straight face that you think the small changes you made could have saved the town that great amount of money. I think that you are being very dishonest claming the savings did not come from closing Elmhurst how stupid do you really think the voters of Portsmouth are? As noted in the original savings of that magnitude just don't appear.
I also think your bullying tactics are an embarassment for the town in this case it just shows how desperate and mean spirited a person you are calling people names like you called Ms, Levesque just shows that you know you were wrong and had to reduce yourself to a level of such poor behavior it's what we teach our children as parents not to do.

How about the 1.4 million extra left over from last years school budget ?One million cash from school department is going to the town so the town can build up a surplus?

It has been noted that the school department may have as much as one and one half million from making cuts last year .The announcement about the school million dollar surplus was announced almost to the day that the wind turbine broke down last May 2012.

The town council is going to increase the school budget by one million in return for handing over one million in cash ? So lets get this straight . The town needs about one million to fix the turbine ? In May of 2012 when the turbine stopped working all of a sudden the one million gets pulled out of a hat ?

The school department gives the town one million which goes into the surplus fund which will pay for the wind turbine repairs and the town gives the school a one million dollar budget increase forever?

What a deal for the taxpayers! You never see one cent in tax relief from the one and one half million in savings and the school gets its budget increased an additional one million a year forever !

Mr. Harris, your side show is realy getting old.

Mr. Harris was also helped by several council members in changing the pensions balance against the advice of the actuaries. Anybody want to guess who? What we need in Portsmouth is truth and open goverment not back door politics ...

I Think Everyone Is Missing The Real Question Here. Why Was Marge Posting On The Patch At 5 AM? Did She Wake Up From A School Commitee Meeting Dream And Decide She Had To Post A Blog Right Away? I'm Still Drinking At 5 AM. Perhaps She Was Still Drinking Too, That Would Explain The Format Of Her Blog.

Ms. Levesque left out another person who was chased out. The special ed director was chased out too. All of the people who were chased out were replaced with people who have entry level pay.