A group of worried and angry Candia parents turned out for Thursday night's school board meeting to hear what school officials plan to do about packed classrooms and limited courses at Manchester High School Central, where the town's students attend classes.

“We will follow up with you as soon as we know,” School Board Chairwoman Deb LaBlond told several dozen parents. “Everyone with a child at Central will get an email.”

But LaBlond wouldn't say whether Candia would follow in the footsteps of Hooksett, which earlier in the week notified the Manchester School District that it had breached its contract with the town because of overcrowded conditions. (See related story, Page B1.)

The Candia School Board decided to first meet with its lawyer to discuss what options are available to the town.

LaBlond said whatever was decided, Manchester's school administrators should be the first people to get that information.

Although school board members and Superintendent Charles “Phil” Littlefield told parents they were working on the problem from a number of different angles, some parents stressed this wasn't a problem that could wait.

“Everything you've heard about what a mess is there is true,” said Kathy Berger, whose daughter is a junior at Manchester Central. “Kids are sharing coffee tables and filing cabinets because there aren't enough seats.”

Other parents said their kids had been assigned to only three classes and the school guidance office is jammed with students looking for help with similar problems. And others said their children are enrolled in math classes with as many as 44 and 45 students.

State law limits class size to 30 students.

Several parents who have seniors this year in Manchester said their kids have been unable to get into required courses.

“There are seniors who won't have enough credits to graduate,” said Debbie Fisher. “That's just plain not acceptable.”

Like Hooksett, Candia's contract with Manchester requires the town to first notify the school district that it believes the contract has been breached. Candia is then required to give the city 180 calendar days to resolve the problem. If the Manchester district fails, the contract can then be voided.

“Are we going to accept that for the next six months our kids are going to go through this?” asked Michelle Benson, who has a daughter at Central.

Littlefield asked parents to either call his office or send an email outlining specific situations that the school board's lawyer could review.

And while many parents expressed a lot of frustration with Manchester school officials, Littlefield said that may not be the source of the problem. Manchester laid off 184 teachers and spent the summer calling roughly half of them back, said Littlefield. “Manchester has a convoluted process,” he said, adding the city also has an extremely strong teacher's union. “What's being offered now for courses, to a certain extent, is a function of who they could call back.”

Littlefield also said the reason that Manchester schools are suddenly facing such extreme problems is a $10 million budget shortfall, the result of a tax cap that the city passed.

“I believe that the aldermen can override the tax cap,” said Littlefield. “The problem is not with the superintendent or the school board, it's with the aldermen who are refusing to override the cap.”

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Barbara Taormina may be reached at btaormina@newstote.com.