Letter To The Editor
Budget Business
The Budget Committee
met last week to review the Town’s mid-year budget and the
School District’s end-of-year budget.
Noteworthy for the Town
is that the fire truck purchase saga is coming to end. Some will
recall that in 2015, we voted to spend $270K for a mini-pumper –
in five $57K installments. The chassis was purchased and Valley
Truck was contracted with to install the equipment. But delivery
was delayed and delayed – and then Valley went out of business.
Fortunately, a company in Connecticut, Liberty Truck, has been
hired to finish what Valley started, and promised delivery on
Dec. 1 – and at a savings is $60K. I suggested that we have a
parade!
Noteworthy for the School was that they came in $189K
under budget. That’s only 1.6% of a $11.8 million budget, but
better in the black than in the red.
Of special importance in
those numbers was the 15th and final $297K payment of the bond
for the school addition – new gym, classrooms and library. Those
of us on the Budget Committee who were around at the time (2001)
recalled the struggle to convince some of the voters to tear
down the moldy modulars and build the addition.
Sadly, the
school population has not grown to fill this space: elementary
enrollment has fallen from 470 in 2005 to 374 in 2016. This is
the trend across the state: the “graying” of NH and the
shrinking of the school-age population.
And this shrinking
population makes the cost per student go up, even as the actual
school budget has remained relatively constant.
My hope is
that the offering of full-day kindergarten – and other
improvements in the works - will attract families with young
children to Northwood, as Coe-Brown does for those with teens.
Time will tell.
More legislation suggestions to come.
Tom
Chase
Northwood Budget Committee member
This Weekend’s LRPA After Dark Feature:
1937’s “A Star Is
Born”
Join Lakes Region Public Access Television at 10:30
p.m. this Friday and Saturday night (August 18 & 19) for
an encore presentation of our “LRPA After Dark”
feature, 1937’s timeless melodrama “A Star is Born,”
starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March.
“A Star is Born”
is the definitive movie about Hollywood fame, fortune, and its
human toll: the juxtaposition of the talented, young actress’s
rising career with the downward spiral of her husband, an aging,
self-destructive, alcoholic matinee idol. This movie is so
fantastic that it’s been remade twice, once in 1954, with Judy
Garland and James Mason, and again, infamously, in 1976, with
Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. It’s even in the works
again, this time with Bradley Cooper in the starring role! For
many fans and critics, however, the original 1937 version is
still the best. Filmed in wonderful early Technicolor and
directed by William Wellman, it was nominated for six Academy
Awards, winning for Best Original Story, and garnering a special
award for the film’s outstanding color photography. Critic
Leonard Matlin wrote, “Two remakes haven’t dimmed the glow of
this drama … March and Gaynor are at their best.” Grab your
popcorn and join LRPA after dark for this vintage classic!
Letter To The Editor
The Northwood School Strategic Planning
Team would like to thank the parents, community members, and
staff who responded to the strategic planning survey.
Over
the next couple months the Strategic Planning Team will be using
the feedback from this survey to develop a long-term vision,
identify issues that the district will face in working towards
that vision, the strategies that the district will take
toovercome those issues, and invite the community to provide
feedback to us regarding key priorities for the next five years.
We are a diverse group, made up of board members, teachers,
administrators, students, and community members tasked with
identifying strategic issues, setting goals, and selecting
strategies to reach those goals with the aim of developing a
strategic plan by early 2018.
To achieve this task, we use
and value community feedback. If you’d like to start or continue
to be involved in this process, please keep your eye out as this
fall the Strategic Planning Team will be hosting a public forum
for additional feedback. Thank you for completing the survey and
thanks in advance for taking the time to participate.
Tom
Chase
Lauren Dow
Robert Gadomski
Tiffany George
Shirley Glennon
Ellen Gibson
Bree Gunter
Dana Hochgraf
Brianna Jackson
Keith McGuigan
Scott Reuning
Eva Roy
Jim Vaillancourt
Jocelyn Young
The Pied Piper Of Hamelin
The town of Hamelin has a rat
problem, and there’s only one person who can help! Cactus Head
Puppets brings the story of The Pied Piper to life in this
comedic, updated adaptation of the traditional folktale. Not
only does the town find a musical solution to pest control, but
the kids of Hamelin also teach the grownups a lesson about
generosity. In the end, the townspeople all come together in
celebration. Join puppeteers John and Megan Regan as they
present this classic tale, told with multiple puppetry styles
and plenty of dancing rats! After the show stick around for a
talkback where the puppeteers will show how they constructed the
stages, scenery and puppets!
The library received a “Kids,
Books, & the Arts” grant to help bring the performance to
Northwood. Funding for the Kids, Books and the Arts event
is provided by the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation, CHILIS,
Cogswell Benevolent Trust, and is sponsored in part by a grant
from the NH State Council on the Arts & the National Endowment
for the Arts as well as funds administered by the New Hampshire
State Library and provided by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services. Please provide advance notice to the
library if you need a sign language interpreter.
Date:
Saturday, August 19
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Northwood
Congregational Church
Program Suited for: Ages 4 to 12
Letter
To the parents of Northwood students,
Busing our
students to Northwood School and Coe-Brown Academy just made a
turn for the worse. As many of you know, Northwood
Transportation, in the middle of a legal contract with the
school that went until June 30th 2018, went out of business
leaving Northwood in a bind. Finding a replacement has been
daunting. Busing companies are having trouble finding drivers.
It is not the greatest job in the world, pay, benefits, and
hours being poor at best. Part-time (little or no benefits)
workers are a premium but I’ll leave politics out of my letter.
We thought that there was an agreement with four bus drivers to
drive for Dail to bus Northwood students. We offered a $3000.00
bonus which is twice what Dail is paying in its attempt to find
drivers. We are being held hostage. They want both bonuses.
Frankly, I’m disgusted with both Northwood Transportation and
the drivers.
Pretty much all of the important discussion on
this subject has been in non-public. I have come to detest
non-public discussions. It is your money and in most cases you
should be privy to how it is being spent. That being said
though, I do think that the Northwood School Board, from a
distance, made the right decisions. Why I am writing this letter
instead of being at an emergency meeting to discuss (in public)
this latest hijacking is a concern. Why shouldn’t we wait for a
week and then meet. School won’t be starting for a couple of
months, right?
Six plus years on the school board, Busing is
the only subject that has drawn a crowd. Who woulda thought.
Tim Jandebeur
Northwood School Board