Superintendent Shaps Resigns!

Shaps Resignation announcement

Superintendent Shaps has resigned, effective June 30, 2026, in two and half weeks, two years into a three year contract. Back in April, 2026, Superintendent Shaps announced he would retire at the end of his contract in June, 2027.

The recent NEA-administered survey showed that the teachers and professional staff really hated him. Only 11% agreed with the statement: 'I believe I can disagree with my Superintendent without fear of retribution.'  Sounds like a bad boss.

I've heard plenty of criticism of the previous superintendent over the years, but nothing like this. The criticism has extended to the board for seemingly failing to address the problem and the accompanying public outcry.

I must admit I do not really understand the public's fervor on the issue.  Sure, the massive loss of teacher support seems reason enough to consider removal. But the online anger seemed beyond what was justified, and seemed brewing even before the teacher survey result were released.

I suppose much of the anger stems from the recent tax increase associated with the district, which seems to have fallen disproportionally on Lee.  The board and superintendent proposed a $10M elementary school renovation and expansion project on top of the increase, which seemed a bit tone deaf. 

The community itself seemed to want contradictory things. The board tried to demonstrate that it was being careful stewards of the taxpayer dollars by a $519K reduction, laying off three interventionists, two teachers and a nurse, part of the staffing increase for COVID.  At Deliberate Session in February, the voters undid this, adding the money back to the budget.  On election day in March, the budget passed but the elementary school project failed.

Some of the anger at the superintendent and board stemmed from a lack of any action that showed respect for the vote at DS to restore the funds. Will the interventionists keep their jobs? I haven't been paying that close attention, but as far as I know, nothing has been announced since the Deliberative Session and budget passage that modifies or even comments upon the original plan to make the cuts. 

Reaction online to the announcement seems almost universally gleeful, marred only by the concern as to how much the taxpayers are going to have to shell out to pay Dr. Shaps not to work next year.

Staff Survey Results -- they hate him!

Lee Town Budget Fails Again!

June 9, 2026. What I think this lo-res photo from the town is telling us is that in today's special election, the Lee Budget failed to pass for a second time in two months, by a vote of 255 (44%) YES to 319 (56%) NO.  The budget is for FY27, which is July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. I forgot to vote.

In the March 10, 2026 election, Lee voters, understandably upset that the increasing Oyster River Cooperative School District taxes seemed to land disproportionally on them this year, voted against both the school budget and the town budget.  The school budget passed anyway, carried by the votes from Durham and Madbury. NO prevailed for the Lee town budget, with voters opting for the $5.69M default budget rather than the proposed $6.09M budget, which was 7.0% higher than the default budget.

As the article states, rather than simply accept the default budget, the board availed itself of the option to  try to pass another budget, this time asking to appropriate $5.93M, 4.3% above the default. As we are an SB-2 town, we had a second Deliberative Session on May 9, and election day today where NO won again.

I attended the May 9 Deliberative Session for a few minutes, but I didn't really follow the details of what was proposed for the modified budget. I supposed it doesn't matter much now that it failed. 

The town has already announced the cut of the town-wide yard sale next year.  The Recreation Commission usually covers the nominal expense of $50-$75 for printed maps of the participating residences.  Similarly, I was told that the budgets of the Sustainability Committee and Technology Committee would be cut to $0 in the proposed budget. I don't know if that means the 2027 Made In Lee Artisan Fair will have to be skipped. 

I'm not certain, but it appears that as these committee lines have been in the budget consistently over multiple years, they count as recurring, so should be included in the default budget. In any case, the board has wide discretion on how to juggle expenses when a budget fails.

If those items are any indication, many of the town-run public events will be cancelled, and the citizenry may come to regret their NO vote.