By Alex Malm
During the Jan. 24 School Board meeting, one of the agenda items was in regards to the agreement between the Londonderry school district and the Manchester School District for the career and technical educational program.
It was explained by Superintendent, Dan Black, that the agreement they have in place would be ending at the end of July, which meant they needed to renew their agreement.
“It’s more of a timing thing,” said Black.
Black said there were no major changes to the agreement compared to last year’s.
“Our legal counsel and the administration support the School Board agreeing to the updated contract, which is nearly identical to the old one,” said Black. “This agreement will go through the end of the 2023-24 school year. Both Bedford and Goffstown School Boards have already signed this updated agreement and have returned it to Manchester. We recommend the Londonderry School Board does the same.”
Black pointed out that new legislation was passed, which means they can’t have more than 10 scheduling conflicts for their school calendar.
“The four school districts have already started meeting to set up a process to have more aligned school calendars for the 2024-25 school year,” said Black. “Updated legislation requires that we don’t have more than 10 conflicts on the school calendar after Labor Day.”
The School Board voted in favor of approving the agreement.
Also during the meeting, the School Board re-voted on whether or not they would support the different warrant articles, after School Board member, Kevin Gray, was absent from the previous meeting.
“Due to the timing of our budget meetings and attendance we only have four votes on all the warrant articles, including the operating budget,” Black said in a memo. “Just to make sure there are 5 votes heading to the deliberative session, we checked with legal counsel that the School Board could choose to re-vote with all 5 board members present at this school board meeting if they should choose to do so.”
The school district Deliberative Session is slated to take place on Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. in the Londonderry High School cafeteria. Voting on the warrant articles is slated to take place on March 14 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Londonderry High School gym.
The School Board also accepted the retirement of Beth Hanley, a teacher at Moose Hill, and the resignation of Katherine Chaput, a teacher at Moose Hill.
The next School Board meeting is slated to take place on Feb. 14.