{"id":144,"date":"2008-08-08T18:17:45","date_gmt":"2008-08-08T22:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/?p=144"},"modified":"2008-08-08T18:18:13","modified_gmt":"2008-08-08T22:18:13","slug":"monadnock-taxpayer-group-asks-court-to-halt-special-school-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/2008\/08\/08\/monadnock-taxpayer-group-asks-court-to-halt-special-school-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Monadnock Taxpayer group asks court to halt special school vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 7, 2008
\nKeene Sentinel <\/a><\/p>\n

SWANZEY CENTER \u2014 Just as it looked like the road was clear for the Monadnock Regional School District\u2019s Sept. 9 special meeting, the Monadnock School Taxpayers Association has thrown oil on the pavement.<\/p>\n

The group has filed a request for an injunction in Cheshire County Superior Court against the official-ballot first session scheduled for this Saturday. It was filed Wednesday afternoon by the group\u2019s president, Richard E. Bauries of Swanzey.<\/p>\n

Bauries asks for a temporary or permanent restraining order to prevent the district from holding Saturday\u2019s meeting. He also repeats allegations he\u2019s made in previously filed court documents that the schedule for September\u2019s special meeting to consider a new teachers contract is illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis continual compounding of errors and moving forward as if their (sic) were no problems that need to be addressed \u2014 has to be stopped \u2014 and they need to be addressed prior to further obfuscation by MRSD where they hold another meeting which does not comply with the purpose & intent of (the law),\u201d Bauries wrote in his motion.<\/p>\n

District attorney Paul L. Apple said unless a Superior Court judge brings district officials back to court this week, Saturday\u2019s meeting \u2014 where voters can discuss the proposed contract \u2014 will continue as planned.<\/p>\n

The district will answer Bauries\u2019 latest motion, according to Apple, who added, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing new here. … They\u2019re wrong on the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the school officials interviewed this morning seemed surprised by Bauries\u2019 latest action.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The taxpayers association has) been doing this for years,\u201d school board Chairman Eugene M. White 3rd of Swanzey said this morning. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of pathetic this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superintendent Kenneth R. Dassau used similar language.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does read as a motion of desperation,\u201d he said, describing the taxpayers association as desperate to prevent this latest teachers contract from coming before district voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am angry over the significant among of time and energy and legal fees this group continues to syphon from the district by their actions,\u201d Dassau said in a written statement this morning. \u201cThey are harming the students and the taxpayers they claim to represent.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bauries emphasized the taxpayers association\u2019s opinion that the judge erred in his order to uphold the September meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe taxpayers (association) have done nothing illegal,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is our right. We think this is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bauries has already mounted numerous challenges against the Sept. 9 meeting, including objecting to the special election in a June 12 Superior Court hearing at which he represented himself.<\/p>\n

Bauries was joined at the June 12 hearing by attorneys for selectmen from Fitzwilliam and Sullivan \u2014 two of the seven towns that comprise the district \u2014 in arguing that the lack of a teachers contract didn\u2019t constitute the emergency required by law to hold a special meeting.<\/p>\n

But despite these objections, on July 14, Judge Brian T. Tucker ordered the meeting to go forward and scheduled it for Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Monadnock Regional High School.<\/p>\n

Bauries took issue with the ordered time and place because it ran contrary to the district\u2019s official-ballot form of voting, where residents cast ballots all day at polls in each of the district\u2019s seven towns \u2014 Fitzwilliam, Gilsum, Richmond, Roxbury, Sullivan, Swanzey and Troy. Bauries also contended the time frame between the judge\u2019s decision and the Aug. 9 official-ballot first session wasn\u2019t long enough to legally notice and hold the first required public hearing.<\/p>\n

In three separate motions, Bauries asked Tucker to reconsider his order for the special meeting and invalidate the public hearing the district held on July 24 \u2014 and the subsequent school board meeting at which the warrant was signed \u2014 on the grounds that they were illegal.<\/p>\n

Bauries also filed an objection to Apple\u2019s motion that the judge simply alter the ordered time and place of the special meeting to allow for all-day voting.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Tucker granted Apple\u2019s request, ordering that voting would take place over the course of several hours on Sept. 9. In his decision, Tucker said the district was on firm legal ground and called Bauries\u2019 claims \u201cunfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

White said he believes Bauries\u2019 ultimate aim in filing Wednesday\u2019s motion is to gain fuel for a future appeal to the N.H. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Bauries said association members haven\u2019t yet decided whether they will mount such an appeal.<\/p>\n

But, he added, this motion does lay the groundwork if the group decides to go forward.<\/p>\n

Still, White said, \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be threatened by these guys. They\u2019ve been harassing this district for years. … As long as I\u2019m around, I\u2019m not going to bow down to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 7, 2008 Keene Sentinel SWANZEY CENTER \u2014 Just as it looked like the road was clear for the Monadnock Regional School District\u2019s Sept. 9 special meeting, the Monadnock School Taxpayers Association has thrown oil on the pavement. The group has filed a request for an injunction in Cheshire County Superior Court against the official-ballot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-nh","category-special-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}