The CBNA class of 2011 has forty members who will be graduating with
Highest Honors with GPAs of 93 or above, and sixty honor graduates
with GPAs between 92 and 85. Congratulations to all.
The
Northwood Farmers Market is open for the season! Please plan
to stop by on Thursday afternoons between 3 and 6:30 to see what’s
new, what’s familiar, and watch our blog at
http://northwoodfarmersmarket.blogspot.com/ or our Facebook page
at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northwood-Farmers-Market/160824287285
for upcoming events. See you at the market!
Letter
As most of us are realizing, our legislature has taken up a lot of
unusual bills this year. I was interested in seeing how
Rockingham 1’s State Representatives voted on some of these bills,
so I looked them up, and this is what I found.
HB474 concerns a
law about unions. Currently, in NH, no one has to join a union
or pay dues. But if there is a union where you work, you get
the benefits they have negotiated anyway, for which you pay an
agency fee to cover the costs of negotiating the contract that you
benefit from.
This bill says you no longer have to pay
anything to get those contract benefits. Bye-bye, unions. It’s
called right to work, but it is really right to work for less.
States that have these sort of laws have lower wages and more
on-the-job injuries and deaths. Duarte, Reagan, Sullivan and Tasker voted for this bill, Case voted against.
HB156 lowers the
cigarette tax by $0.10 per pack. It’s supposed to lure people
to buy their cigarettes in NH and increase revenues due to volume,
but it doesn’t seem likely that enough people will spend money for
gas to drive very far for that dime. It will lower our already low
state revenues and increase the budget deficit, and might encourage
some to smoke more. Duarte, Reagan, Sullivan and Tasker voted
for the decrease, Case voted against.
HB429 lowers the drop out
age to 16. When NH, at the urging of Governor Lynch, raised
the age to 18, the drop out rate dropped by a third. Staying
in school means greater earning power during our working years.
Duarte, Reagan, Sullivan and Tasker voted for, Case voted against.
Just wondering where the good jobs are.
Lucy Edwards
Northwood
CBNA
Chorus Wins Big At Music In The Parks Festival
The
CBNA Chorus holds trophies won at recent Music in the Parks Festival
at Six Flags New England
The
Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Chorus, under the direction of David
Deardorff, participated in the Music in the Parks Festival
competition at Six Flags New England on Saturday, May 7, 2011.
It was a fantastic day of music and fun. The Chorus left
school at 5:30 am, and returned at 12:30 am on Sunday morning, tired
but happy.
Coe-Brown was entered into four divisions of
the festival, two Mixed Choruses (one of which was for the CBNA
Select Chorus), Men’s Choir and Show Choir. The Coe-Brown
Chorus made a clean sweep of the competition, placing first in each
category and winning the biggest trophy of the day for the “Best
Overall High School Choir” of the festival. Receiving
awards for outstanding individual music excellence were Sophie
Shiere for “Outstanding Piano Accompanist” and Rayce Calef for
“Outstanding Vocalist.” Congratulations to all of these fine
musicians.
Letter
To The Editor
Guilty! Several years ago at our Annual
School District Meeting, contentious as usual, a lady I did not know
went to the mike and said that she was sick and tired of hearing
that Northwood School was not adequately educating our students. She
stated that it was not so. Many of you clapped. I went home with the
feeling that there is just no hope and I shut up. Well, the grim
reaper is here and if any of you poorly educated Northwood School
students want to have a face to blame, I am guilty. I let you
down, as have many others.
There is not any good news. The
latest results from the NECAP test tell a very dismal story. Just
talking math; from the 09/10 year to the 10/11 year grades 4, 6, and
7 showed no improvement. Grades 3, 5, and 8 went downhill.
So,
what does that mean? It means that despite all efforts like new
curriculum, tutors, specialists and more, only 62% of our students
are proficient in math.
Despite the fact that they spent
over $2,500 less per student, 90% of Strafford students are
proficient in math. Clearly, that is unacceptable, it is not the
SAU, and whatever we are doing, it is not working. While NH is
raising the bar each year, and the average score in NH is going up,
we continue to slide. Reading and writing are no better.
This
time, I am not shutting up. Despite Mr. Overmyer’s rudeness in
trying to strictly time me, despite his getting Robbie to shut down
the discussion on withdrawing from the SAU, and even though it is a
running joke within the School Board that he wants to adjourn asap,
I’m not laughing and I’m not going to shut up this time. Why the
failure? I’m looking in the mirror. The School Board should
also.
Tim Jandebeur Northwood
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