BY ROD HANSEN

As the youth of New Boston develop their artistic and academic abilities, one regular event at New Boston Central School lets them showcase their budding talents.

The New Boston Community Meetings put students’ achievement literally at center stage. During these quarterly assemblies in the school gymnasium, selected students do everything from read poems and essays to performing musical compositions they’ve mastered.

The events, organized by the editorial board of the school literary journal, “Joe’s English,” is an entirely student-run affair. All elements of the meeting, including the lighting,  the PowerPoint presentation displayed overhead and the selection of works performed, is directed solely by students.

“Students have a voice, and we’ve found (the New Boston Community Meetings) are a great way to let people hear their voice,” said New Boston Central School Principal Rick Matthews.

The most recent New Boston Community Meeting took place in the school gymnasium on Thursday, Jan. 25. With members of the school band’s clarinet section using African drums to signal the event, students and teachers filed into the gymnasium for the latest opportunity to witness their classmates’ creative handiwork.

Works performed at the meeting showed students’ concerns as ranging from everyday issues faced by elementary school students to problems facing the world at large.

Fifth-grader Natalie Ellis used her piece “What If?” to ask questions about modern life, including, “What if the world had no war?” and, “What if common sense was used every day?”

Joey Sarette, also in the fifth grade, took a similar tack with his piece, “Happiness Is.” According to Sarette’s piece, happiness can be found in simple events such as seeing friends at recess and smelling the popcorn brought in by parent volunteers on Wednesdays.

Other highlights of the community meeting included students presenting DARE teacher and police Sgt. Frank Kochanek with signed banners pledging to avoid drugs, students from Jacki Filiault’s sixth-grade class performing a song, “Responsibility,” they’d worked on with music teacher Dan Jamrog, as well as third-grade student Maya Harvey presenting the school with a $500 gift card she’d won in a contest sponsored by the Southern New Hampshire Planning Commission.

The event also included a moment of recognition for Hayley Mohan, a Goffstown High School senior who started the “Joe’s English” journal six years ago as a student at New Boston Central School.

Mohan, 17, had won a young author’s award for a book of poems she wrote while attending the school, and created “Joe’s English” as a way of presenting the writing talents of herself and her fellow students.

She said she’s happy to see “Joe’s English” continue to this day, and was pleased to be recognized at the community meeting.

“I’m in awe; it’s such an honor to be invited to be a part of this,” she said.

“Joe’s English” now operates with a nine-member student editorial board, who determine the contents of the  publication and the community meeting presentations. The board meets every Monday after school, and counts art teacher Judy Keefe and first-grade teacher Amy Veilleux as its faculty advisors.

The community meetings have become popular local events, attracting a growing number of visitors to witness students’ achievements, Matthews said.

“We’re starting to see more and more people coming who don’t have children in the school but want to see what (the students) have been doing,” Matthews said.

Two parents whose children performed both spoke highly of the community meetings as a learning enterprise.

“I think it’s great for them to get the experience in public speaking,” said Leslie Millos, whose fifth-grade son, Alex, 10, read the poem “Storms.”

Fifth-grader Robert Misiag, 10, performed the piano piece “Pirates of the North Sea” as his mother, Karen looked on, along with more than 600 students, teachers and parents in the school gymnasium.

“He was a little nervous, but he didn’t make one mistake,” said Karen Misiag. “It’s good for them to get used to being in public like this.”