To no-one’s surprise the Spencer School Board voted unanimously for a merger with Candor.

    There will be a straw vote on the merger issue on Dec. 3 in both the Candor and S-VE districts.

      If the straw vote gets a majority, then the final vote will take place on February 6, 2014.

     The events to this stage were programmed into the process by the handpicking of the people on the merger committee. The S-VE consisted overwhelmingly of school bureaucrats and other school employees, two groups of people that the Superintendent can manipulate.  The most ardent supporters of the merger among the hand picked "community representatives" were appointed to the school board after three board members resigned.  The school bureaucrats are a group that would even, without superintendent prodding, support the merger, because school bureaucrats in bigger districts get more pay.

     The superintendent showed in the budget vote, that he is not below misleading people and manipulate them to vote as he wishes. He claimed that the state aid was down 5 million when in fact, it was up  $300,000.  This time he will no doubt claim that the state aid will go up, because the facilitators brought it up eight times in their final presentation. Which reminds me of the time when I was on the School Board and the state did not pay what was expected. We had a million dollar deficit and taxes went up 29.9%.  If the meager merger aid is available, then the state can say "They get merger aid so let’s cut aid elsewhere."  The merger aid is not much, because it is for the combined districts, so Candor is in on it. The merger aid is short term, but the long bus rides are permanent. Or perhaps not, because the facilitators predicted that the building of a new campus between the towns would be brought up in five years when the people get tired of the long rides.
     The Spencer school would close. We still owe $16 million on the latest expansion in 2003 and now they want to abandon the school that was rebuilt and expanded. They say they will sell it. Who is going to buy it and at what price?  They told me ten years ago that the surplus space there would be rented out at a profit. The same people who have been unable to rent a square foot after trying for ten years, are now supposed to know how to sell a school!  Give me a break!  After closing the Spencer building they want to expand to the High School a mile away!

I’ll try to keep the www.nomerger.net updated. Let me know if you have an item for it.