After the Election cycle was over, the School Board was able to appoint two members to the positions of Chair and Vice-Chair, respectively. It was unanimously chosen that Jenn Ganem be appointed Chairwoman and Nancy Hendricks as her Vice-Chair.
The March 20 meeting also brought about a review of issues discussed in past meetings. Superintendent Scott Laliberte reviewed the policy of snow days for the Londonderry School system. The public has raised concerns about the number of snow days the schools have had and how much it will impact the coming months. According to Laliberte, there have been seven weather related cancellations (one day was a hurricane day). The last school day up to this point is scheduled for Friday, June 22 and the last day for staff is Monday June 25. This does fall within the designated number of days the school has set aside for weather related cancellations. Laliberte also said that some concerns have been brought to him about graduation, but thankfully they are not in a position where graduation needs to be moved. Seniors are also exempt from classes for 30 hours or five days, whichever is less. The Superintendent also addressed questions on why the parent/ teacher conferences on Friday, March 16 were not changed back to a regular school day. The reason for not changing it back was because of the volume of parent/teacher conferences that had been scheduled at the elementary level.
School Board member Steve Young also brought up the possible addition of “eight minutes a day” where another eight minutes is added to a regular school day. Laliberte said that it would depend on how those eight minutes are spent. The argument of hours vs. days comes down to the function from the Superintendent’s personal view. At the elementary level, for example it may be beneficial to add another 15 minutes to the schedule for a writing period for students. Adding minutes would also be a teacher contract issue that would need to be negotiated.
Assistant Superintendent Dan Black also gave his report on seventh and eighth grade students earning high school credit. It was added in the report that if a student just barely got by in a middle school course, they were not eligible to move up in the next course in high school. There are still moving parts to get classes in place for earning credit such as the foreign languages classes, but AS Black felt that these courses will be ready by December of this year.
The School Board also received the January and February Enrollment Report. There has been a modest fluctuation in the K-12 groups and staff is currently getting ready for kindergarten registration for next year. According to Laliberte, it is still too early to give a number on the students that will be enrolled. The Londonderry school system also has 88 students that are enrolled that live in the Hooksett community. The School Board agreed that it is a testament to the district on how many students choose to come to Londonderry when they have three Manchester city schools to choose from along with, Pinkerton, Pembroke, and Goffstown. Londonderry has the second most students from the Hooksett community only behind Pinkerton.