Cheer up, School Board

Was it me, or did everyone seem a little down at the school board meeting?

Although I'm sure you all watched it Thursday night, I thought I'd mention a couple things that caught my attention.

• Chris Andriski gave a lengthy presentation from the NEASC accreditation. There were a large number of commendations, but also a large number of things that need to be addressed in 2 separate reports, one due in December of this year and one in 2014. Facilities and technology were 2 problematic areas. One thing I didn't catch is whether or not we actually received accreditation.

• Dr. Hayes gave an update on facilities. There will be an upcoming Facilities Committee on either June 11 or 12. They will discuss renovation numbers from the architect and a walk through of the Stratham Voc-Tech building. He talked with Chris Williams about it being televised/recorded. I'm assuming these are open to the public, but will check into that.

• The board accepted Joan Liporto's resignation. I haven't had any personal interactions with her, but I've watched her at meetings and it's pretty clear that she's on top of everything. She's brought some comprehensive systems to the SAU (her talk about the Facilities Use policy at this meeting is just one example) and has been a voice of reason. Let's not forget that she's also the person who found the DRA error that helped ease the tax issue. She will be missed.

• No mention of the new NES principle. Apparently a job offer is out there and they're waiting. 
  
  
• Apparently the Oyster River School district approached Dr. Hayes about the possibility of a tuition agreement and he met with members of their board recently.  Personally, I still need to process this. This article in the Exeter Newsletter explained some of the numbers that will matter, and there's a lot more that needs to be considered--things like, tuition vs. co-op agreement, cost and timeline. Not to mention giving up local control over our kids' education. What's tough for me is that I've really come to appreciate the small size of the Newmarket High school and the benefits that gives kids. Also, it seems to me that Oyster River can just be doing their own due diligence and kind of leading us on without a real intention of moving forward. Time will tell and we'll have to wait and see where this leads.
  
  
  And for those of you planning your calendars, there will only be one school board meeting in June on 6/21.