Local Lawyer, Real Estate Broker Enters School Committee Race

WHAV News Staff By |

A local lawyer and real estate agent is the latest to take nomination papers for a Haverhill School Committee run.

Rich Rosa, owner of Buyers Brokers Only, outlined the focus of his campaign for WHAV.

“Students and teachers and parents and taxpayers shouldn’t have to settle for mediocre public schools. I think Haverhill public schools can be great. I think a lot of people believe they can be great, and we can get there with more transparency, more accountability, reducing the dropout rate, managing the special education budget, taking politics out of school policy,” he said.

Asked why he chose to run this year, Rosa said he has become frustrated.

“The problems don’t get solved. We talk about them every year around budget time and then kind of goes away. I like to just be part of the solution.”

He said he wants to be sure the school department’s $79 million budget is being spent appropriately. With the schools planning to spend 7.1 percent more—or $5 million—in the year ahead, Rosa said he believes the schools will likely need similar increases each year. He added he would consider some combination of tax increases and improved efficiencies.

“A combination of both supporting the schools financially and having the taxpayers’ back,” he said.

Rosa, who lives on Kenoza Avenue, is married, and he and his wife Anne have twin boys. One of their sons will be attending Haverhill High School next fall, while the other attends Central Catholic High School, Lawrence.

7 thoughts on “Local Lawyer, Real Estate Broker Enters School Committee Race”

  2. Because of an last minute medical issue my child was not able to attend her Washington trip. The teachers at AB Constantino has the children sitting outside all day in the sun. The teachers were selling snacks all week outside. That is the only constructive thing these teachers could come up with? The whole Haverhill Public School System needs to be looked at and changes need to be made. It is in very poor condition. Not one person in Constantino could come up with a better idea than having 6 hour recess for 8th graders. I welcome some new ideas.

  3. The City of Haverhill could double the school budget and it won’t change a thing. Until or unless there is parental responsibility involved, throwing more money at the woes of education in Haverhill will not be solved. Since Mayor Jimmy’s vision of Haverhill’s expansion includes an exponential increase in wards of the state and zero accountability, it no longer matters who is on this Committee. The teachers of course are under a siege of blame when in fact it is the parents who abscond from their duty as parents.

    Mayor Jimmy will never explain the benefit of bringing in more poor and uneducated adults to the city in the name of “growth”, the very same who can’t understand what is being taught in schools, and can’t help their own kids at home with school work. Those of us with kids in schools know what a disaster the discipline problems are, and that’s if they’re enforced in the first place. It takes nearly an act of CONgress to get rid of the worst behaved kids, ruining entire classrooms for learning purposes. The parents of these little monsters are to blame, they’re failure to teach their children discipline and what school is for an how to behave, instead these parents just blame the teachers. The teachers, many whom are excellent, are there to teach, not be a substitute for absentee parents.

  4. More money out of my pocket to pay for a bloated and wasteful system. Keep throwing money at the same problems. People are broke and can’t afford more. But, he is right about the same problems being chewed on like a cud over and over and over again. He has a rude awakening trying to deal with the largess within Haverhill.

  5. So this guy thinks it smart to run on a platform of increasing taxes? Get a clue! To top it off, send his kid to private school. Waste of time candidate.