Newfound appoints Jake Corneau to vacant school board seat

BRISTOL — The Newfound Area School Board appointed a new member, Jake Corneau, of Bristol, to fill a vacancy, at the meeting Aug. 10.

Joe Maloney resigned from the board when he became the district's assistant facilities manager. The board chose Corneau from three candidates, to serve until the March election.

By his own assessment, Corneau has "very little experience in this realm," but he did not see that as a disadvantage.

"I have fresh eyes," he said. "I’m a very objective and analytical thinker. I have good attention to detail."

He noted he spent 15 years in law enforcement, and currently works in affordable housing.

"Both of those fields are very thankless, just like the job you’re doing now," Corneau said. "If granted a position like this, I certainly would be thankful to learn a lot and to be involved."

Also seeking the position were Brian Gallagher and Michelle Sharp.

Gallagher had been the Newfound district's first business manager, between 2001 and 2004. Since then, he served as business administrator in Pelham, 2004-07, and went on to provide business and human resource consulting services for districts around the state, including Concord, Surry, Monadnock, Winchester, and Sullivan. Prior to working with school districts, Gallagher served in state positions, as a supervisor in the budget office and as court services representative in the Administrative Office of Courts. He also served as a state representative in Belknap District 4, and was on the House Ways and Means Committee.

"I’m fortunate to be retired from a full-time job, and therefore I have some some volunteer time that I'm willing to give back to the community," Gallagher said.

Referring to the school district’s budgetary problems that include a possible deficit doing into the new fiscal year, Gallagher said, "I believe I have some background that could assist the board if you felt as though I would, you know, fit in the situation. I understand a lot of things that Michael [Limanni, the business administrator] is up against, in particular the financial demands. As a matter of fact, I believe Sept. 1 he's up against a deadline to submit what they call the DOE 25 to the Department of Education, which would indicate ... whether or not you ended the year with a deficit or a surplus. Either way, it will play out the way it plays out.

"I would just encourage the board, if it happens to be a deficit, that you inform the public sooner than later so that they’re totally informed on it."

Sharp has served as the district's site coordinator and assistant director of the Project Promise after-school program.

"I’ve seen a lot, you know, working here, being a student here, all of it. You know, witnessed a lot, seen a lot during my tenure, and that's one of the reasons I've wanted to be on the school board," she said. "I believe we represent the families, taxpayers, you know, even if they don't have kids in the school, in the community, and I want to make sure that their voices are heard.

"And transparency has been talked about tonight, and that's one of the biggest things. I know many have a hard time."

One board member voted to appoint Gallagher, while three cast their votes for Corneau.

In the earlier discussion about the status of year-end audits, the district's financial problems, and its ability to cover a potential deficit, Limanni noted, "You did put significant funds towards reducing taxes in a couple of those years. That's what really depleted the unassigned fund balance.

"So, one of the recommendations I would normally say is to maintain the fund balance in a way that’s responsible for your cash flows. Be careful about using it to reduce taxes too much, because then you'll get a seesaw effect in each year.

"It’s a political and emotional roller coaster for people to have their taxes. Like, look, we got you very low taxes this year. Well, but next year, you set it up to a point where you’re guaranteed to have higher taxes, and what we try to do financially is create a stable environment for taxation. To try to — similar to why you've got a tax cap, right? was to limit that tax growth every year — and we want to do that by being responsible with financing, with expense management, and which is why we have long-term capital improvement programming to say how can we do this over time.

"That’s the whole purpose of capital reserves — not to supplement your budget, but to spread out well-defined long-term plans. So that when you have a larger capital improvement in one year, you offset that by some in your reserve, so it doesn't create a spike in taxation. We want people to be able to live here and have predictable tax rates."