Seabrook committee rejects leaving SAU 21 despite concerns over student performance

SEABROOK — The town's SAU 21 Withdrawal Feasibility Study Committee voted Thursday not to recommend forming a separate school administrative unit, citing higher costs and no assurance the district will see improved student test scores.

The vote was 4-3, with Budget Committee member Chris LeClaire and School Board members Kelli Hueber and Lacey Fowler voting to leave SAU 21.

“I just haven’t seen any evidence that SAU 21 administration is somehow causing those low test scores or getting in the way of improving them,” said Laura Carty, who chaired the committee. “Going through this process … I've come to see that improving students’ success depends on what happens in the classroom with the teachers who are on the frontlines.”

The committee was formed after Seabrook School District voters approved Article 6 by a vote of 830-601 on March 12 to explore the pros and cons of leaving the five-community School Administrative Unit 21 .

The Seabrook School Board put forth the article to start the formal process of breaking away from the SAU in light of concerns brought up by parents and guardians regarding low test scores and the education of their children. SAU 21 comprises Seabrook, Hampton Falls, North Hampton, South Hampton and the Winnacunnet Cooperative School District .

Carty — who along with Casey Hashem, Jo-Anne Lowe and Ashley McKenzie voted to remain in SAU 21 — said the School Board has control over hiring, curriculum and improvement plans. She said new curriculums have been implemented in the past few years, but better test scores don't happen overnight.

“The School Board has put a good team in place, and improvement is starting to happen,” she said. “I think it would be a mistake to interrupt that progress and ask the School Board to now focus on building a new administration and worrying about things like payroll.”

Seabrook School Board Chair Maria Brown said she was disappointed in the vote and still believes withdrawing, and having a superintendent focused solely on Seabrook's needs, is in the best interest of students.

"Our kids are struggling in math and reading, and they deserve an education as good if not better than our sister districts," Brown said. "The districts within the SAU are top 10%, Seabrook sadly is bottom 10%. How can that be acceptable to anybody? The four committee members delayed the educational improvement for our children, but we will continue to help our kids as best we can. It’s now in the hands of the voters, and I have no doubt they will turn down the recommendation of the four committee members and vote to support our kids."

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Some committee members believe SAU 21 is not the problem

Statistics show Seabrook children have performed significantly below their peers in SAU 21 and the state for years.

SAU 21 Superintendent Meredith Nadeau addressed the data at the committee's Aug. 22 meeting, stating that Seabrook children face serious and persistent socio/economic challenges that most others in the SAU do not. These challenges include poverty, homelessness, insecure home lives, exposure to substance abuse, crime and violence at a much higher rate than others. Those challenges, Nadeau said, are well recognized as being major out-of-school factors that inhibit learning.

“It doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t achieve,” Nadeau said. “It just means it’s harder. They have more challenges and need more support. Whether you withdraw or not, those are issues that are going to affect your achievement without system support.”

The economic stress Seabrook children face is borne out by the district’s very high number – 80% – of children whose parents’ income levels qualify annually for the free and reduced lunch program, Nadeau said.

Further, she said, Seabrook has a higher percentage than its sister SAU communities of children who qualify as homeless. This data is generally accepted as the primary indicator of the economic disadvantage in children’s environments, which can impact negatively student proficiency, she said.

In her vote to remain in SAU 21, Hashem said her research did not find evidence that establishing an independent SAU would improve test scores.

“Data points from the U.S. Department of Education and research studies from very reputable sources are saying that the main issues that drive those things (low test scores) are addressing chronic absenteeism, which is something that the school last year has been really trying to address, providing high-dosage tutoring … but all these things have only been addressed in the last year,” she said. “Shame on the school for not putting those things forward sooner, but it takes more than one school year to see results at 100% proficiency, and we just started doing these things.”

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Committee looked at what it would cost taxpayers to leave SAU 21

Before taking the vote, the committee also looked into the annual cost of maintaining an independent SAU.

That figure, according to Carty, ranged from $788,187 with five administrative positions to $999,603 with six administrative positions.

Currently, Seabrook contributes $657,800 in administrative fees in support of SAU 21.

That would mean Seabrook would incur an additional $130,387, at the minimum, to establish its own SAU, according to Carty.

McKenzie noted that the feasibility committee must also take economic impact into account.

“What I heard from the community and in the surveys was that they don’t want their taxes to go up,” she said.

The same survey, which only 107 of 8,384 residents took, showed that only 25% wanted to leave SAU 21.

The teachers' union, Seacoast Education Association, was also opposed to withdrawal.

"After years of building camaraderie between students, professionals, families and community members from different districts, withdrawing from SAU 21 could create a lack of connection or even division with the other towns both scholastically and socially," they stated. "The district has spent many years changing the focus of curriculum in the town to align across the schools, constructing programs, and district goals. The withdrawal would dismantle all of the success if students were not being given similar opportunities and access as the other towns. Seabrook students will be more successful when utilizing the best resources available to them and maintain their collaborative relationships with the boards, teachers, staff, families and students of SAU 21."

School Board, community members disappointed by vote

Harold Eaton, who is also a town selectman, said he was “very disappointed” at the outcome of the meeting. He said the committee didn’t do what “was in the best interest of the students.”

“I think you put costs before kids,” he said. “We know what we did get with SAU 21 …"

He said the committee failed to weigh the pros and cons of withdrawing.

"Is this good for the students?" he asked. "How can we grow the students? How can we achieve higher proficiency levels in our math and faltering English? Instead, it seemed like this committee was steering away from the children. It became more about what the cost is going to be.”

Eaton said he wouldn't mind paying more if it benefits the children.

"Our $659,000, we know what it’s getting us,” he said. “If it’s going to be $500,000 more … I’m the type of person if I know that the children are going to be better in the future, and we’re going to give them a greater opportunity to succeed, I'm going to vote on the $500,000, and I know I’m not the only one.”

School Board member Kelli Hueber said the committee's vote is "tying the hands of our voters" to have a superintendent focused fully on Seabrook's needs.

“Academic ranking says it all," she said. "Our kids deserve an education (that’s the same) or better than the rest of any other district in the SAU 21 space.”

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This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seabrook committee rejects leaving SAU 21 despite concerns over student performance