Superior Court Dismisses Green’s Suit Against Superintendent, School Board Chair, Business Administrator and SAU

In a notice of decision dated April 4, 2017, the Honorable Judge Andrew R. Schulman dismisses the case involving Donna Green’s claim that as an individual school board member she is entitled to compel the district’s business office to create a detailed, budgetary document to assist her in conducting a personal audit of the 2017-18 default budget.  Green argues that her office includes inherent rights to access all school records and requires school district staff to devote time and resources to creating informational reports and budgets for her to review.

In his decision, Judge Schulman asserts Green does not have the power she claims as there is no such statutory authority, “…New Hampshire statutory law discusses the obligations and powers of school boards as governmental entities, but does not imbue constituent school board members with any individual rights….The court has not found any statute that expressly allows an individual school board member to do anything other than participate and vote at school board meetings and sign-off on budget documents.”

The Superintendent, School Board Chair, and Business Administrator thank the Court for this finding and look forward to continuing their efforts to increase the rigor, accountability, evaluation and support that drive student achievement, to improve its operational systems, and assist in the development of appropriate and respectful budgets.

April 5, 2017