Yeterday, Timberlane voters overwhelmingly approved the citizen’s petition to place the School Administrative Unit #55 budget on future school ballots. This means residents in Atkinson, Danville, Hampstead, Plaistow and Sandown will now be able to vote to accept or reject the SAU’s budget each year, which is a good discipline for the SAU.
Timberlane voters were convinced of the need for voter oversight on budgets funded by taxpayers and showed it at the polls. Unfortunately, the petition failed in the Hampstead School District, but the combined vote in the SAU area was a sound majority: 2,544 – 2,072 (as per The Eagle Tribune).
In other very good news, Sandown elected Cathy Gorman to TRSD Budget Committee with a well supported write-in campaign. Cathy is on the Sandown Budget Committee and demands value for money while very much wanting to improve public education.
Other like-minded write-in candidates were fielded in Atkinson, Plaistow and Danville but so far election results for these have not yet been released.
Stay tuned! There could be more to get excited about.
And finally, a note of thanks to Sandown voters who politely and most kindly stopped in the pouring rain yesterday to talk to me about the citizen’s petition. I was outside the polling station for 11 hours using my outside voice, but it was worth every lonely minute of it. As one kind soul said to me, “This is what makes democracy work.”
Thank you to Jorge Mesa-Tejada for initiating this petition in Hampstead and getting me onboard for Timberlane.
timberlaneandsandown 
Cathy, Best of luck, you have your work cut out for you, with a budget committee that acts as little more than bobble heads for the super.