District hasn’t disclosed the tuition amount to be paid by Steele

MANCHESTER,  NH  June 8, 2026–In response to follow up questions asked of Manchester school superintendent Jennifer Chmiel, Girard at Large has learned that the child of Smyth Road School kindergarten teacher Krystie Steele will be allowed to stay in the Manchester School District.

 

Lied about residence

As first reported by Girard at Large, Steele, a resident of Leminster, Massachusetts, enrolled her two children at Smyth Road.  Upon finishing the fifth grade last year, her older child returned left the district, leaving her younger child in the School.  The school district told Girard at Large that, per district policy, Steele would have to pay tuition or disenroll the student.

District policy determines a student’s “home school…by their home address as listed on two proofs of residency.”  Steele claimed a Normand St. address, which is in the Green Acres school attendance district, as her home address, begging the question as to whether officials bothered to check her residency claims.

District policy does allow the superintendent or their designee

…to grant special permission for attendance at schools other than those considered to be the home school of the student.

Special permission may be granted for reasons including, but not limited to special education students, hardship cases (childcare arrangements are not considered hardship cases), or other extenuating circumstances as determined by the administrator. The administration further reserves the right to limit special exceptions based on class sizes and overall school enrollment.  (Emphasis added.)

Children who register for school after the beginning of the school year, insisting upon entering a particular school based on their processed residence, shall be allowed to register, and be given a ten-day grace period to produce proof of residence. In such instances, a signed and notarized statement of residence must be submitted.”  (Emphasis in the original)

Aside from it being apparent that district policy wasn’t followed at any level in verifying the actual home address of Steele and her children, we emphasized the above line noting that exceptions are based on class sizes and overall school enrollment.  Since several Smyth Road students are being bused to other schools to maintain the district’s class size policy at Smyth Road, and since Steele’s currently enrolled child is in a grade where several students are being bused to other schools, it would seem Steele received treatment that directly violated the policy.

Using the per pupil cost found on the NH Dept. of Education Web site for Smyth Road School, Girard at Large calculated that the enrollment of Steele’s two children cost Manchester taxpayers upwards of $167,000.  Inasmuch as Steele’s older child had special needs, we are unable to calculate the additional cost of the services that child required to be educated at Smyth Road.

Chmiel: Answers few and far between

In response to our inquiry last week, Chimel wrote:

The BOSC approved the parent’s request for continued enrollment with the payment of tuition based upon the average per pupil costs prorated for the balance of the school year.

Despite the passage of a week, the following questions asked of Chmiel remain unanswered:

  • How much is Steele being charged?  That should be public information as it’s a tuition revenue.
  • Was this discussed in public session?  (Publisher’s note:  This was asked because we’ve seen no agenda item.)
  • Why is the amount being pro-rated?
    • Why isn’t the board charging the full tuition?
    • Was it based on your recommendation?
  • Will any action be taken against Steele for lying to the district about her residency?
  • Will any restitution for all the past tuition be sought?
  • In reviewing your reports showing how many kids from what schools are being sent to other schools to maintain your class size policy, it would seem that at least one child has been displaced at Smyth Rd. to accommodate Steele’s daughter.  Do you think this is fair to the displaced family, whose parents live here and pay rent or taxes?
  • Will the student be allowed to return next year?
  • If so, will the full cost of tuition be paid?
  •  You said the pro-ration was on “the average per pupil costs.”
    • What was averaged and why was an average used instead of the ppc for Smyth Rd., which is a cost available on the state’s Web site, presumably using district data?

Should we get any answers, this article will be updated because, in lying, Steele received taxpayer provided and paid for services for herself and her children that weren’t allowed by district policy, forcing actual Manchester students to attend other schools, likely inconveniencing or worse, their Manchester taxpaying parents.  The school board sanctioning this theft with an undisclosed pro-rated payment is an afront to the tax payers as they complain about “severe lack of funding” from the city to educate students.

Roukey: A plea for help

Meanwhile, at the May 13 meeting of the Committee on Teaching and Learning, Central High School Principal Deb Roukey shared a plea with members of the committee members and the public who might be watching the meeting at home as she piled dozens of returned letters to parents on the table.  She said she understood that people move and that phone numbers change but that parents needed to update contact information with the school to enable communication.  The citizens who brought this presentation to our attention in light of this Smyth Road story, questioned how many of the families Central could no longer reach remained either in the city or the state.  Roukey also stated they were not responding to messages sent through they district’s student/parent portal system.