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With camera in hand, one Croydon resident hopes to enhance community awareness of local government

By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CROYDON — The ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, in many ways, has done more than any event in modern history to pull parts of New England into the 21st century.

Between advances in remote technology, the ongoing expansion of fiber optics infrastructure to the growing popularity of community Facebook groups, small rural communities like Croydon have more potential today to participate in local public meetings, even when society was at its most isolated.

In Croydon, resident Edward Spiker, 38, is voluntarily trying to increase the community’s awareness of their local government by video-recording Croydon Selectboard and School Board meetings, which he posts afterward on Youtube and the community Facebook group, “Croydon NH Community.”

“I want people to see what happens at these meetings, as well as how the officials respond or react to public feedback,” Spiker told the Eagle Times on Wednesday.

Though a critic of the Croydon School Board’s current plan to absorb next year’s budget cuts, which would involve contracting educational services to private, for-profit companies, Spiker said his intent in recording meetings is not “to cast blame” on elected officials, but to give citizens a way “to see what is going on at these meetings.”

“[Typically] a lot of these meetings are sparsely attended,” Spike said. “And a lot of the attendees tend to be older residents, many who seem more concerned about the cost of taxes rather than the education. Meanwhile, a lot of younger parents in town don’t know how the governing process works.”

This problem of public participation reached a tipping point on Town Meeting Day on Saturday, Mar. 12, when Croydon voters amended to cut the district’s proposed school budget from $1.7 million to $800,000, a 53 percent reduction, which voters then passed by a vote of 20-14.

Only six percent of Croydon’s 585 registered voters had participated in the meeting.

Since that vote, attendance at Croydon School Board meetings have been packed with irate residents and families, with meeting attendance at each averaging between 50 to 100 people.

Spiker’s hope by recording and sharing the meetings that more residents will follow the town and school meetings, to hopefully prevent such situations.

Spiker admitted that he missed the Town Meeting himself, saying it had “slipped his mind.” Spiker had to work at his second job that day, but had also presumed the meeting would be postponed due to the winter storm that day.

While the awareness of meetings is ultimately the resident’s responsibility, Spiker noted there are many ways in which towns could increase their effort to notify the public.

The minimal requirements for warning meetings in New Hampshire “are kind of primitive,” Spiker said.

For example, state law requires that notice of public meetings must be posted 24 hours in advance “in two appropriate places,” one of which may be the town’s or school district’s website or a newspaper.

According to Spiker, the Croydon Selectboard posts two paper notices. One is posted on a message board at Croydon Town Hall. The second is posted at Coniston’s General Store, a convenience mart located across the street from Town Hall.

While these postings meet New Hampshire’s legal requirement, Spiker believes that more residents would attend selectboard meetings if the notice was put out to a broader audience, such as in additional locations or on Facebook.

Many Croydon residents do not visit the general store, Spiker said, whereas the notice on the Town Hall message board “is the equivalent of putting out a sign that reads ‘Wet Floor.’”

Spiker said his engagement in the public meetings began increasing in January, after four month of inquiry into the district’s failure to provide school bus transportation for Spiker’s son, a fifth grader at Richards Elementary in Newport.

Spiker said that lack of school transportation, which Croydon was required under state law to provide, cost Spiker’s family approximately $2,500 per month during that period, because Spiker and his wife had to reduce their work hours to transport their son to and from school.

“I do enjoy going to the meetings,” Spiker said. “I’m curious by nature and I like to learn. Some meetings might be monotonous, but there is always something different to learn from each one.”

While the Croydon School Board has hosted meetings on Zoom and in-person, Spiker said the Croydon Selectboard has not been receptive to the Zoom format, citing limitations in the internet connectivity.

Spiker said that rationale is particularly troubling, given the school board’s hope to teach Croydon students in small groups called “learning pods,” which will depend on having adequate Internet access to run.

“What does [the selectboard’s response] say about our children’s education, when these kids are going to be going back and forth on the town’s network?” Spiker said.

Many Croydon residents are hoping to avert that scenario on Saturday, May 7, when a special meeting is scheduled to revote on next year’s school budget. If the vote passes, Croydon’s school budget will be increased to $1,705,000, with $984,534 to be raised in taxes.

To hold the special meeting, at least 50 percent, or 283 of Croydon’s 565 voters, must attend.

Spiker believes that Croydon voters will meet the turnout requirement, saying that residents are realizing the importance of the budget to Croydon’s children, as well as the likelihood of the town facing a sizable budget deficit if it attempts to operate on the current appropriation.

“I don’t want to keep sounding like a squeaky wheel, but there are so many logistical problems with the school board’s plan,” Spiker said.

The Croydon School Board acknowledged last Friday that a budget deficit will likely result, though some board members say they hope their plan might minimize the impact.

Croydon families, however, are vehemently opposed to the plan, which would effectively dismantle the district’s school choice program for students in grades 5-12 and replace the district’s primary education provider for those grades, which is currently the Newport School District, with learning pods through a private contractor.

Spiker said he aims to encourage all residents to attend the May 7 meeting, regardless of their position on the budget.

“Voicing your opinion is the only way to make a change,” Spiker said. “Thirty-four people shouldn’t decide the fate of our children.”

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