BY DERRICK PERKINSPhillip Akerman’s single biggest worry as he walked into the new high school just over a month ago was what was going happen to all of his friends? After a year at Salem High School, Akerman said he wasn’t the only one worried about giving up friendships forged in the neighboring community during freshman ...

At a recent meeting of Bedford Taxpayers Association (BTA), the Board of Directors discussed the upcoming town and school budget process.   Due to present economic conditions and state budget woes, the BTA board considered the impact of both future budgets and how they can be crafted to minimize the tax burden for Bedford citizens. After ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSDigging 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 ...

By DanO’BrienHooksett police officer Jason Defina, the school resource officer who was reassigned last spring despite community objections, was fired by the Hooksett Police Commission on Sept. 8. Defina, 35, a Marine Corps veteran who has been with the Police Department since 1999, said he plans a legal fight to get his job back. “I ...

By MATT SCHOOLEYFew students in Bedford watched Barack Obama’s first-day-of-school address, but not for political reasons. School officials decided it was not possible to watch the video district-wide because of scheduling conflicts, but that teachers could individually decide if they wanted to provide the video for their ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSWhen 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 ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSSchool 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 ...

By MATT SCHOOLEYBedford residents continue the makeover process of a building central to the town’s history so it doesn’t become just that – history. Volunteers recently added a tarp to the roof of the Stevens- Buswell School to assure that damage doesn’t continue while Historical Society members work toward their goal of ...

BY DERRICK PERKINSWith less than a month to go before doors open to students, Principal Richard Manley believes the bulk of the work to ready the new high school for the start of classes has been finished. Educators are going over their lesson plans, developing teaching activities for the year and familiarizing themselves with the wealth of ...

By Lauren Sausser Hooksett Police Chief Steve Agrafiotis made no indication of whether he’d reinstate former school resource officer Jason Defina into that position again, even after two teenage girls pleaded for him to do so at a Police Commission meeting on July 21. “(Officer Defina) really has made an impact on our school,” ...