Voters Guide: Dennis Ryder for Nashua Board of Education

Name: Dennis Ryder

Age: 83

Occupation: Retired Mechanical Engineer, have been CEO for three companies.

Office Running For: School Board reelection

Background/What Uniquely Qualifies You For this Position?: 

I'm  fiscal conservative, I am very, very careful on how money is spent, have been chairing the financial operations committee. I joined the school board primarily  because of the debacle of $3 million of misspent or misplaced money five years ago. They literally overspent the budget, which is not permissible under state law, and they had to be bailed out to the tune of $3 million. I felt someone has to do something to right the ship, so I stepped up.  

Interests outside of politics: I go ballroom dancing three times a week, I read, I'm a member of the National Geographic Society, and enjoy reading the Smithsonian, and Scientific American.

Previous Office/Elected Position Held: This is my first in Nashua. I was appointed on the Cable Television Committee.

Why are you running for election/re-election? I've gotten part way there in achieving the goals we've set up, but we have to do things in a different way if we're going to succeed. We're spending more and more money, and our test scores are going down and down. We don't have very much of a record, a way of judging how the school is doing, but the one standard we do have is NECAP and our schools are steadily declining, particularly in high schools.

What are the top priorities, in your perspective, for Nashua's Schools right now?

Our primary objective is the Common Core, which sounds like a good approach, but it's untested. I hope we can make it work. We are working along those lines currently.

What is the top priority for the school district moving forward? 

It should be prioritized in the integration of technology into education. Our children seem to have a natural aptitude for computers, we need to engage technology more fully in the education process.

Why should voters select you to represent them on the School Board?

Because of my age and my great experience – I've lived in four countries, been in at least 11 different jobs, I'm experienced in many different disciplines – engineering, running companies, started my own business – I bring all those tools learned over 83 years, to the school board and the people of Nashua.

One thing that has been frustrating is that I joined the school board to make things better and, at this point, there hasn't been improvement. In fact,  just the opposite – we're worse last year than the year before. Improvement is a slow process. It takes a long while to filter through the pipeline. Improvements might be starting in third or fourth grade, and we just might have to wait for those students to come to the top grades before we see the results.

Governments right now across the country, moving into some sort of evaluation system, they can literally see results of different programs. It's happening everywhere, and happening in New Hampshire. It's been mandated by the state Board of Education, and so we have no choice in adopting it. There's a great deal of controversy over it, but in my opinion, it's a step in the right direction. We should have a way of evaluating effectiveness of teachers and programs, otherwise we're putting money in just hoping things will get better.

Personal: From London, England, but have lived in Canada and France. Have  two daughters, one born here in Nashua – I've lived here twice, from 1960-67 and since 1990 – so this is my home. Obviously, I'm a naturalized citizen. My wife was from Scotland. She was a wonderful woman, and I miss her every day. 

As a young man during WWII I got to know Americans, and was determined to come here after the war – this was No. 1 in the world, including in education. Somewhere along the line this country has lost focus. In international standards, we're around 17, even though we spend more money than any other country. We're not doing something right.