The
Northwood 2 Purple Ninja’s Girls U12 Won The Rec Division End Of
Season Tournament in Northwood on Saturday, October 27 with a (
9-1-2) for the season. 5 teams played in Rec Division Tournament,
Chichester, Concord Christian Academy, Northwood 2, Northwood 1,
Pittsfield. The Girls played tremendous today with a win in the
Championship Game over Concord Christian Academy 3-2, Megan Edgecomb,
Kendall Nester and Emily VanGenera all scored 2 goals during the
Tournament and Carly Ramsey netted 5 to the score board today. Paige
Valli was outstanding in goal. Coach Steve added, “What a great
team this is! We have played 3 games today already. We can win this
tournament. When I told them they could do it, well, they did it!
Members of the Championship Game are:(front row, l to r) Olivia
Farrar, Mary Thoms (middle row, l to r) PaigeValli, Makayla DeButts,
Kelsey Peace, Megan Edgecolm, Kendall Nester, (back row, l to r)
Coach Dicky, Lillian Hodapp, Mary Lee, Carly Ramsey, Taylor Edgcolmb,
Emily VanGenera, Coach Steve.
Letter
The
tragic killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School have most Americans
thinking about our children and their teachers, and how we must
cherish them. This verb, “cherish,” is used in the New Hampshire
Constitution to assert how the State must view education and to
explain why the State has an obligation to provide an education to
its youngest citizens. Sadly, from my point of view, the State has
never fully stepped up to this responsibility, leaving it to each
town to raise, as best it can and will, the bulk of the revenue
needed to educate its children.
So once
again, the School Board has developed a budget for 2013-2014 and
presented it to the Budget Committee. And sadly, again from my point
of view, the majority of the Budget Committee has seen fit to reject
the School Board’s budget and return to the 2012-2013 budget, adding
in an extra $69,249 to cover mandated Special Ed costs. The
rationale for this is that property tax payers don’t want their
taxes to go up.
Of
course, this approach would work in a world where costs do not rise.
But this is not that world, and costs will rise. For example, after
very modest increases in recent years, Coe-Brown regular tuition
will increase 4.51% to $13,462/student. And since this and many of
the other spending items in the budget are not under the School
Board’s control (e.g., Special Education), any increase must be met
by cuts in areas where the School Board does have control (e.g.,
regular education in the elementary school).
Fortunately, the citizens of Northwood can have their say at the
School Deliberative Session, and finally at the polls. And we will
see if our children’s education is cherished.
Tom
Chase, member Northwood Budget Committee
|