Salem Observer : school

Master plan may mean one less elementary school

Salem Editor — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:08:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

Digging in for a tough fight, parents are mobilizing to save the Walter F. Haigh School as the School Board considers a master plan that could close the elementary school.

No final decision has been made. Estimates predict the district would save more than $1.5 million by closing Haigh. The facilities plan would spend $4 to $7 million renovating the community’s other five elementary schools over several years.

But it’s an unwelcome approach, say parents of Haigh students.

Many parents intentionally bought homes nearby so their children might attend the school, said Jennifer Wilson, Haigh PTA vice president. Though Haigh is more than 50 years old, it has a positive reputation.

“It’s a nice community school. Most of the families all know each other,” Wilson said. “Studies show kids do better in smaller schools than big schools. Salem had these neighborhood schools and it was a draw to buy a home here.”

Despite her support of Haigh, Wilson doesn’t hesitate to list problems at the building, which was built in 1954. Art and music classes are without permanent space and taught from carts of supplies wheeled from room to room. Administration space is cramped, the school lacks a multipurpose room and children are corralled in class during recess on rainy days.

All of that needs to change, Wilson said, but updating the district’s aging elementary schools doesn’t have to mean ending Haigh’s long history in town.

Last Tuesday at the first of two public forums on the school master plan, Haigh parents were vocal about their concerns.

Living a stone’s throw from Haigh, Elaine Ratay said her daughter Allie, 7, “absolutely loves” the school.

In second grade this year, it’s Allie’s first year at Haigh. It didn’t take long for the school to endear itself, Ratay said. “We’ve had a great experience. I love it that it’s a neighborhood school,” she said.

“My first instinct was, ‘I hope it (doesn’t close) until we’re through.’”

Ratay understands expensive renovations are needed and that may push officials to look at closing the school. But if that means larger classes elsewhere, she doesn’t see the advantage.

The 222 children enrolled at Haigh would be split between five elementary schools, but construction of additional classroom space at those schools should offset crowding, according to the plan.

School Board Member Peter Morgan isn’t sure costs don’t outweigh the benefits. It would at the least mean 60 or 70 new names for each principal to learn, he said, and could strain janitorial and support staff.

While Haigh is on the cusp, more concrete financial information will be needed before the board can take a position one way or the other, according to Morgan.

The decision will likely be made in the coming weeks as the board weighs whether to move ahead with elements of the master plan in time for the March ballot.

“Haigh parents have made it clear (closing the school) is not acceptable. It’s worth the money to them to keep it open,” Morgan said.

In the months ahead, the community as a whole will need to decide what it’s worth. “Is it worth a million and a half, plus operational savings to keep Haigh open?” Morgan asked.

Law raising dropout age to 18 means schools must find, return kids to class

Salem Editor — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:53:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

When school doors opened across the state this fall, an unexpected group of students was affected thanks to a new law that raised the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18.

Schools in New Hampshire were given the task of locating formerly legal dropouts, as students who had legally dropped out previously before turning 18 must now return to school.

Pelham and Salem were not greatly affected by the new law, which went into effect on July 1.

Pelham/Windham Superintendent of Schools Frank Bass said the issue isn’t about tracking down the students who had already left school, but stopping future students from doing the same.

“The new law is not really an issue for us,” said Bass. “The issue is being able to catch the student before their fall. We have to provide a safety net and find intervention strategies that will be helpful for them and their parents.”

Pelham High School, which had 693 students last school year, had a dropout rate of 2.3 percent in 2008-09, a total of 16 students. Though Salem High School had a higher number of dropouts than Pelham, the percentage was lower in 2008-09, with 44 students leaving school, a percentage of 1.9 percent. Superintendent of Schools Michael Delahanty said Salem officials had to send out letters to six students telling them of their obligation to return to school, and they have not had any trouble tracking those students down.

Before the law was even put into place, Salem had a variety of alternative programs for students struggling with standard classroom learning, something he believes directly led to the school’s low dropout rate.

“The options and alternatives we’ve offered for years have been beneficial to our students and students in other communities,” said Delahanty. “Many districts have patterned their programs after ours and adapted it for their own purposes. For our school district, our program works very well.”

The school offers an alternative diploma program, the GED option and an individual accountability plan for completing the high school work that must be approved by the superintendent, which can include online or evening classes.

One of the issues with the law that Delahanty sees is that in many cases students dropping out of school are involved in drugs and alcohol, and school is not always the solution for what they need.

Overall, however, the superintendent believes the law is in the best interest of the state’s students. Bass agrees, saying Pelham school officials embrace the change, and see it as another opportunity to help kids stay on track.

“We’re confident that we’ll be in great shape when the year is over,” said Bass. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we had zero dropouts at Pelham High School.”

Kindergarten ready to roll - First year for Salem, Pelham and Windham begins Sept. 2

Salem Editor — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:41:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

School district officials say they are ready to roll out the town’s first public kindergarten program for the inaugural 213 students when the school year begins Sept. 2.

“We’re good to go,” Edie Soley, assistant superintendent for the Salem School District, said earlier this week. “All nine teachers that have been hired are in getting their rooms set up.”

Classes are broken into two half-day sessions in Salem, Windham and Pelham. Hours are 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 to 3 p.m. in Salem, 8:45 to 11:15 a.m. and 12:30 to 3 p.m. in Windham, and 8:30 to 11 a.m. and noon to 2:30 p.m. in Pelham.

According to Soley, the curriculums have been drawn up, the furniture has arrived and the supplies have been purchased.

Though the district has run into a delay installing two portable classrooms at Fisk Elementary School after concerns arose over whether the soil at that site could support the concrete footings of the temporary buildings, Soley said that issue has since been cleared up.

The seven other portable classrooms – which are being installed in a staggered order at the district’s other elementary schools – will house the older students displaced by the kindergarten program. Each of the district’s nine half-day kindergarten classes will be held inside the main buildings, according to school officials.

Superintendent Michael Delahanty said making sure everything is in place for the new kindergarten program to get off to a smooth start has caused him about as much anxiety as he has ever felt in his career.

“I want everything to be exact and I know that (the kindergarten program) is going to set a standard for the opinion that parents hold for us, especially parents who are sending us their oldest child. It’s very important to me that we inspire the type of confidence that I know people have in our school system,” he said. “It’s a brand-new program and any one of a thousand things could go wrong.”

Though the concrete footings for the portables at Fisk School were poured on Tuesday, Delahanty said the district ran into another delay after workers discovered an abandoned gasoline storage tank – dating back to before the school was built on the property – buried under the location where the portables were to be installed. While it was just a matter of getting a permit to have the tank removed, Delahanty said it caused a moment of short-term anxiety for administrators.

“A lot of people have paid a lot of attention to detail,” he said. “The only thing that could go wrong is any issue out that is of our hands.”

Windham and Pelham programs begin
In neighboring Windham and Pelham, two other communities preparing to launch new kindergarten programs after legislators reworked the state’s definition of an adequate education in 2007, district officials have reported that they are ready and waiting to welcome kindergarten students to school on Sept. 2. According to Superintendent Frank Bass, 51 kindergarten students are enrolled in Pelham while 152 are enrolled in Windham.

“We are looking really good. Our portables are in ... We are in the process of getting all of our furniture and equipment in,” Bass said. “Everything is in a state of readiness. We’re very excited to offer kindergarten in both communities.”

Salem school officials say last-minute kindergarten sign-ups will have them scrambling

Salem Editor — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:52:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

Officials fear a sudden surge in kindergarten enrollments in late summer could make the start of the school year a little more hectic than usual.

According to Superintendent Michael Delahanty, the district projected that around 300 children of eligible age for kindergarten would enroll in the program.

As of last week, the number of future students registered with the district remained below 200, creating concerns for officials moving forward with preparations for the start of the school year.

Salem is one of about a dozen communities in New Hampshire without a current public kindergarten program. Plans to go forward with the program began after legislators changed the state’s definition of an adequate education to include kindergarten – effectively making public kindergarten mandatory for all communities – in 2007.

“Right now, the number of teachers and classrooms is determined by enrollments,” Delahanty said. “Having these kids registered in late August isn’t going to help us.”

So far, the district has hired seven new kindergarten teachers and Delahanty said they are holding off on bringing any more educators on board until they have a better idea of the size of the kindergarten class. Officials had originally anticipated hiring around 10 teachers.

Delahanty said the district also had to make a final decision on how many portable classrooms to bring in by the first two weeks of May. With a 14-week construction time, a delay in determining the final amount of space needed would give educators and officials little time to set up before the start of the school year. As it is, Delahanty said the district expects to have the portables on site during the first or second week of August, already limiting the amount of time educators have to prepare.

Though officials originally proposed constructing 10 portables – funded by the state for the first three years as town officials search for more permanent facilities – that number is now down to eight or nine.

While current plans call for the portables to be used by older children, likely the fourth- and fifth-grade students, Delahanty remains concerned that a late surge in enrollment’s could have the district squeezed for room.

“I won’t have the space for them, and there will be more in one room than we would normally have,” he said. “We anticipated that some parents would be keeping their children in private facilities. I worry that in July or August, like what is true with our first-graders, we have an influx of enrollments.”

The concern has led officials to put up fliers in local schools and send press releases to local newspapers calling for parents of eligible students to register with the district as soon as possible.

“I hope that parents that are unaware of the process can get the information and get their children registered,” he said.

Salem kindergarten plans underway - students signing up

Salem Editor — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:41:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

With funding for Salem’s public kindergarten program now restored to the school district’s operating budget, officials look forward to tying up the administrative details in time for the start of school in the fall.

About 170 kindergarten-aged students had been pre-registered for the program as of earlier this month, according to Superintendent Michael Delahanty, and he expects as many as 300 will be enrolled for kindergarten by the end of this coming summer.

“It is not a bad number, considering we started with 30. There are a number of people who were waiting for some kind of an outcome (on the budget issue) as well,” Delahanty said. “I believe that more people will come forward that the funding has been restored.”

The $1.6 million price tag for the implementation of the town’s first public kindergarten program – stripped from the district’s operating budget in a 5-4 vote by the Budget Committee last month – was overwhelming restored by voters during the Feb. 5 deliberative session.

Delahanty, who has campaigned for providing a public kindergarten to community as the right thing to do, described the response from residents as heartening and encouraging. Going forward, he said the district would wait to see the outcome of the March 10 Town Meeting before meeting with state officials to determine a timeline for when portable classrooms could be installed at each of the town’s neighborhood elementary schools.

The district is planning on hiring 10 kindergarten teachers, five support assistants to help children with special needs and a number of professional support staff – based on the number of students estimated to be enrolled in the program.

With the resources required to run to program already known, Delahanty said administrators could begin purchasing furniture, fixtures and equipment as soon as they begin placing annual orders for the rest of the district’s schools.

“It’s just a matter of hitting go and getting all this done. I’m most confident that we’ll have plenty of time to get up and running in the fall,” he said.

According to School Board Member Bernard Campbell, though the debate over whether or not the town will have a kindergarten program in place to meet the state’s deadline is settled, concerns over funding remain. He pointed to the state’s budget troubles as one cause for worry.

“Whether or not (state) education funding in general is going to be under some sort of cut, how that might impact the kindergarten funding or how that might impact adequate education funding in general, those would be major concerns,” he said.

Budget Committee member Stephen Campbell, who has been a critic of the school board’s decision to include kindergarten funding in the district’s operating budget rather than as a separate warrant article and called on the board to take the state to court over the kindergarten mandate, said the looming issue would be constructing a permanent home for the town’s kindergarten students.

State funding covers the housing costs of the kindergarten program for the first three years, after that it is up to the community to find a permanent location.

Stephen Campbell, who said the district has run into trouble in the past trying to get voters to go along with major construction or renovation projects, predicted the issue will resurface a year or two down the road.

“If they do it next year, I’m not sure that the economy is going to have improved very much between now and next year,” Campbell said. “It’ll be a sizable amount of money and if they continue to ask for 9 percent (budget) increases and then more on top of that they might have trouble. That’s an issue for the future.”

Salem boy helps those in need on his birthday

Salem Editor — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT

BY DONNA KISH

If you asked Salem resident Anthony Bellomo what he wanted most for his eighth birthday, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Instead of gifts, Anthony, a second-grader at North Salem School, asked his friends to bring food donations to his birthday party. He and his friends then headed down to the Rockingham County Community Action Program, located on Lawrence Road, and brought in the food they collected.

Anthony thought of the idea after his mother, Linda Bellomo, showed him a Salem Observer newspaper article showing empty shelves at the food pantry.

“I looked at the picture and saw that they didn’t have any food,” said Anthony. “It made me think that they needed food more than I needed toys.”

With the holidays approaching and the country’s economic crisis affecting millions, more and more food pantries are in need of donations to help stock the shelves to meet the growing demand from area residents.

“I thought it was a great gesture and promising to see that young people are thinking about what we are facing in terms of poverty,” said Rockingham County Community Action Program Coordinator Brandi Bobusia. “It is inspiring that young people are taking action.”

The pantry serves Salem and 11 surrounding communities, and is currently providing food to some 40 households a month, most of which have children. According to Anthony, the pantry is always in need of donations, since most families are returning more often for food because of the economic climate.

“When I went there with the food, they said to me, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of food you got there,’” he said. “It made me feel like I did the right thing.”

His efforts aren’t stopping there. His mother will be taking him and his friends back to the pantry this week to help assemble Thanksgiving baskets for area residents.

Character Counts at North Salem School
Bellomo’s family may have given Bellomo the most precious gift of all – a strong foundation of morals and values, as well as the desire to help others. However, there is another effort going at Bellomo’s school that is also having a great impact on his charitable ways.

Bellomo attends North Salem Elementary School, where they have begun an innovative program that teaches ethical behavior in addition to academics.

The “Character Counts at North Salem” program was introduced into the school last year and is already having an impact on students, according to Principal Janice Wilkins.

The program provides teachers with tools they need to help strengthen students’ moral compass. Character Counts is centered on the six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. The school’s guidance counselor teaches students all about each trait in the classroom and ways that they can live by the program.

Students will earn recognition when a staff member “catches” a student demonstrating one of these traits, according to Wilkins. Students receive special certificates and recognition during morning announcements, as well as their names in the newspaper.

Currently, the trait focus is on citizenship, which is exemplified best by Bellomo’s recent efforts.

“We are so proud of Anthony,” said Wilkins. “It was just so thoughtful. He has a big heart.”

Food drive
Another way the school is bringing the “Character Counts at North Salem” program to life is through charitable efforts such as the school’s annual food drive. This year’s donations far exceeded last year’s and Wilkins credits the “Character Counts” program for helping them achieve an overwhelming amount of participation.

The donations will be making their way to four area food pantries, including The Rockingham County Community Action Program, The Pleasant Street Food Pantry, St. Joseph’s Food Pantry and the Triumphant Cross Lutheran Church Food Pantry.

Our hallways were brimming with food,” said Wilkins. “It is my hope that through these character-building efforts at school, a sense of responsibility and caring carries over into a student’s everyday life.

As far as Anthony is concerned, he already has his sights set on his next birthday and said he has a whole year to think about which charity he will be helping next.

“I learned that there are a lot of people out there who don’t have a lot and they need our help,” he said. “I want to help others."

Salem secretaries union drops petition for revote

Salem Editor — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:02:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

After renegotiating their contract with the Salem School Board, the Salem Educational Personnel Association has withdrawn its Superior Court petition asking for a judge’s approval for a special meeting and revote on salary increases for the 2008-09 school year.

“The contract was renegotiated with language changes only, none of which affected any new money,” said Jack Brouse, a member of the National Education Association who was representing the school secretaries union. “There’s no new money, and we move on.”

Brouse would not comment on exactly why the union agreed to withdraw the petition, but said they would go forth with a new warrant article in March 2009.

Salem Superintendant Michael Delahanty said the decision to withdraw the petition came about during a conversation among negotiating parties from the union and the School Board on Wednesday, July 9. The School Board was scheduled to vote on ratifying the new agreement at their meeting on Tuesday, July 15, he said.

“I believe that both the secretaries and the board members had some reservations and were second guessing the wisdom of moving forward with a special meeting given the time and the costs involved,” Delahanty said.

In March, voters killed a warrant article asking for 2.5 percent raises for the 2008-09 school year for the 22 secretaries in the union. They also voted down an article that, if passed, would have allowed the Salem School Board to hold a special meeting to reconsider the raises, along with several other warrant articles.

The union filed the petition on Monday, July 7, asking for a judge’s ruling on their plan to insert a ballot question on the Sept. 9 primary ballot for renegotiated 2 percent raises for secretaries for the coming school year.

The union argued in the petition that doing so would not require any spending on the part of the school district on staffing and facilities.

The Salem Budget Committee was asked to hold an emergency meeting scheduled for Wednesday, July 16, on the subject. Budget Committee member Stephen Campbell said he questioned the legality for holding such a meeting before a Superior Court judge ruled on the petition.

“You’re asking me to vote on something that at the point of July 16th is hypothetical because the judge hasn’t said you can have the meeting yet,” said Budget Committee member Stephen Campbell.

Budget Committee Chairman Susan Covey said she conferred with Town Manager Jonathan Sistare, also a lawyer specializing in municipal law, who said that voting whether or not to recommend a primary ballot warrant article for the raises would be within the confines of the law.

“They were two separate processes. There’s no reason why one shouldn’t be done before the other,” said Covey.

The time constraints associated with preparing for the vote were a major factor in the decision to withdraw the petition, Delahanty said. If carried through, the Superior Court judge’s ruling on the petition would have been expected by the end of July.

The school district would only have until July 28 to post notice for an Aug. 12 deliberative session, which would be just enough time before the Sept. 9 primaries. The school district would spend a lot of effort organizing the deliberative session, getting moderators and notifying the media.

The exact terms of this newest collective bargaining contract have not been disclosed, said both Delahanty and Covey, but both said that there will be no financial implications for the 2008-09 year.

Delahanty said the conversations have been at least congenial since the March vote against the contract, adding both sides were professional and understanding.

Failed Salem special ed warrant may affect school spending on other items

Salem Editor — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:04:00 GMT

BY JIM DEVINE

SALEM – Although the school district budget passed March 11, the failure of a deficit spending article for ballooning special education costs has put pressure on supply purchases, school officials said.

“It’s not necessarily a freeze, but it’s close to it,” Superintendent Michael Delahanty said, describing the loss of a $100,000 request taxpayers denied in a year fraught with “no” votes.

That $100,000 would have helped defray a $840,000 increase beyond the amount the school district budgeted for special education costs the school district is obligated to pay.

“If we had the deficit article we would have been able to overspend a little more than what we budgeted for catastrophic aid,” he said.

Due to an increase in students that require out-of-district placement for special education, the school district requested the additional money from taxpayers, Delahanty said.

The article failed as the last item on the school district ballot in a 2,458-to-2,340 vote, denying further funding to the operational budget.

According to school district business manager Linda MacDonald, special education in the current school year ran over the $2.9 million budgeted to cover out-of-district costs including tuition, transportation and any additional special needs.

Although the costs often vary from year to year due to the number of students and where they are placed, Mac- Donald said the costs have tripled since the 2003-04 budget of $1.3 million.

“It’s an obligation that we have to pay although it’s gone up significantly in the past years,” Delahanty said. “Increased students and increased costs of the programs bring up the cost. We generally try to look at the number of students that we have and we know what our past experience is, but unanticipated placements drive up costs.”

The shortfall will directly affect supplies and purchases at local schools, Delahanty said.

School-wide projects and new book purchases will likely see the most scrutiny as savings are considered throughout the school year to maintain the budget, Delahanty said.

“There generally wouldn’t be any concerns as long as there was enough money in the principal’s school supply account ... Now it’ll probably get a second or third look before approving or denying a request,” Delahanty said.