12-31-2013 News

The Battle Royale rages on in Hooksett.  Hooksett School Board Vice Chair David Pearl seems to be questioning whether or not Superintendent Charles Littlefield misled the board back in June regarding the timelines needed to approve a tuition contract with another community.  Echoing questions raised at meetings earlier this month, Pearl emailed Littlefield asking about the timeline he said needed to be followed if a contract was to be negotiated and reminded Littlefield he said the State Department of Education would need to approve any contract before it was voted on by the town.  Littlefield, who earlier said the drop dead date for that to happen would be sometime in October or November, replied that timelines were discussed in a number of contexts, but that he would check with the D O E about the need for an approval.  Once he did, he wrote that the DOE did not have to approve the contract before the town vote and would likely do so afterward.  He has yet to reply to Pearl’s follow up question about why that information wasn’t given to the board when it was discussed months ago.  The crickets are likely going to chirp for a long time on that one.  If you want the Humble Host’s opinion, Littlefield likely withheld that information as it would have eliminated the Pinkerton Only crowd’s assertion that there wasn’t enough time to evaluate anything but a Pinkerton Only option. 

Those of you watching the dueling petition drives in Hooksett might be interested to know that the petition started by Scott Barker to oppose to the Pinkerton contract, which was started on Christmas Eve, has surged past one hundred twenty five signatures.  The one to remove John Lyscars from the School board, which was started two weeks earlier has about eighty signatures when the out of state and international signatories are removed.  We’ve linked to both from this newscast so you can check them out!