VALLEY
PATRIOT EXCLUSIVE!! North
Andover School Chairman's e-mail touches
off firestorm over meals tax, insults
Tom Duggan - Valley
Patriot Editor
NORTH
ANDOVER - School Committee Chairman Chris
Allen thinks that the Merrimack Valley
Tea Party and town activist Ted Tripp are
small minded for opposing the
proposed meals tax on the town meeting
warrant last week.
She also believes,
or at least says she believes, that they
dont care about education and have
denigrated teachers and educators in
town.
So
says Ted Tripp, a town resident who read
an email she sent out to school by
Allen to administrators and public school
employees the day before Town Meeting was
to vote on a proposed 0.75% meals tax on
all prepared food sold in North Andover.
(see email below).
Her
email to the employees of the school
system came just days after
Superintendent Hottel sent home
a letter with students advocating support of the
meals tax on official stationary of the
North Andover Public Schools, causing
outrage in town.
Chairman
Allen, who campaigned for the meals tax,
is also being accused by Mr. Tripp of
using school resources to affect the
meals tax vote at Special Town meeting.
He spoke during last weeks school
committee meeting demanding an apology.
Yesterday
I got a flurry of phone calls and emails
over a letter that was sent out this past
Monday, Tripp said at the public
meeting, while Chairman Allen
disrespectfully sent out texts and played
with her cell phone.
It
was apparently sent out from a town
authorized email computer, or town
authorized computer account. And I say
that because, at the bottom it says:
please not the mass sec of
States office has determined that
most emails to and from municipal office
officials are public records.
But
Chairman Allen told the Valley Patriot
that she did not use public resources to
send the email and defended her
statements, refusing to apologize to
Tripp or those like minded
people in town who opposed the tax. She
also said in her written response to
Valley Patriot inquiries that she intends
to continue her activism for the schools.
Tripp
also addressed Allens claim that he
doesnt care about education in
town.
I want to tell you a
little bit about this small
minded person right here. I went to
high school. I graduated valedictorian of
my class. I went onto MIT. I got on the
deans list my freshman year. I
graduated with bachelors in chemical
engineering. I went on another year and
got a masters degree in chemical
engineering. Then I went to work. In my
technical career I was co-inventor on
four US patents I have many foreign
patents as well.
I
presented technical papers, Munich,
London, Amsterdam, Kuala Lampur, Jakarta,
Tokyo for 20 years I gave
continuing education courses using
electronic accelerators for the instant
polymerization of coatings and adhesives.
And
why do I tell you this because I value
education as much if not more than
everybody else in this room tonight. I
also value great teachers, theres
nothing like a terrific teacher in
education.
Super
Hottel knows since he started in NA I
have had discussion with him on how to
further education in North Andover we
talked about when he first came, I said
one of the things you can do is,
lets get a course in Chinese
thats the future. Weve talked
about improving scores. I said lets
have courses in Latin and Greek and well,
you came close this year to having
courses in Latin. Weve talked about
improving scores. Theres nobody
here who values education and teachers
more than me.
So,
I challenge Chairman Allen to prove, show
proof somewhere that I wrote or I said #1
that all the money from that meals tax
was going to go to the schools I never
said that and I never wrote. #2 I never
denigrated any teachers or any educators
in the system. I would never do that. I
may argue with you on policy I may argue
with you on money. But I would never
denigrate the teachers here.
So,
I challenge you, and if you cant
show any proof, and I know you
cant, I expect a public apology
number one and I expect you to send to
your email list here, an apology as well
o all those people saying you were wrong
and you apologize because your remarks
were incorrect. Finally I just so want
you to know tomorrow I am filing a
freedom of information act. I want the
original of this and anything that went
out on Monday Tuesday and Wednesday and a
list of all the recipients it went to
because this is public information It
want from a school computer its all
public information and I am going to get
that and then I will share that with the
press.
Allens
Response
Chairman
Allen says she her email comments about
Tripp prior to Special Town Meeting were
in response to an e-mail sent out by
Tripp to his Tea Party
Constituents.
During
public comment at our School Committee
meeting on November 17, Tedd Tripp came
before the board in a highly emotional
state relating to an email I sent out
just prior to Special Town meeting,
her response reads.
I
confess to being forced into a defensive
state just prior to town meeting when I
read an email from Ted to Tea Party
constituents which referred to the Town
Meeting Warrant Article #9 related to the
Local Option Meals Excise Tax and claimed
that:
the
schools are already salivating at the
prospect of this extra money. As a matter
of fact, the superintendent
of schools sent home in the backpack of
every student a notice about the meeting
and how great this would benefit the
schools if it passes. While
technically not illegal because he
doesn't come right out and ask for a
"yes" vote on this article, you
can see he is advocating for the parents
to get to town meeting and support it.
That's why, as Tea Party advocates, we
must stop these kinds of games by
"big government" people who
ALWAYS, ALWAYS want more of our money.
There is no end to it. WE
MUST JUST KEEP TELLING THEM NO!!!!
Please take the time to come to town
meeting on Tuesday evening and vote NO
(HELL NO!) on the meals tax.
As
Chair of the School Committee, I took
this language as a disparagement of our
school employees. I was further concerned
about the language that was used in
targeted phone calls to citizens, at
least one of which made all kinds of
untrue and inflammatory statements about
our schools, such as that test
scores are low and not many
kids go on to college. In fact, our
schools have been cited this year by many
media outlets for outstanding test
results and 93% of our students proceed
directly to college after graduating from
North Andover High School.
My
letter was thus intended to refer not to
Mr. Tripp alone, but, as I said, to a
politically motivated group
that disseminated these inflammatory
statements.
Some
facts: I never said Mr. Tripp was
anti-education. I used publicly available
voter lists, cross referenced to publicly
available town reports of North Andover
employees. I have lived in town for over
27 years so I also know a lot of folks. I
did not use a school computer. The phone
call referenced was very real, was
documented, and the person who made the
call is known. As chair of the North
Andover School Committee I was elected to
advocate for our public schools. I will
continue to do so.
Working together?
While
opponents of the meals tax have
complained loudly that Chairman Allen and
Superintendent Hottel have been working
together behind the scenes to politic for
the meals tax, an email from Allen to The
Valley Patriot seem to confirm that
claim.
While
awaiting a written response from Allen to
Valley Patriot inquiries on the issue,
Allen explained the short delay in her
response in an email stating the
following:
Any
statement I make to any publication must
be run by Mr. Hottel first (standing
instructions) so I am waiting for his
reply. He is generally very prompt. ~ C.
Allen
When pressed about why
an elected member of the School Committee
would need permission from a subordinate
(the Superintendent works for the
committee) and whether this was a
standing policy of the committee, she
responded saying:
No, not a policy,
just a curtsey between chair and super.
He always extends me the same, kind of
the "no surprise" rule. I
realized this doesn't happen with other
school committees.
To respond to this story or send us a new
tip you can Email the Valley Patriot at valleypatriot@aol.com