Armfield: Core curriculum not so hot according to test scores
Hey, folks, we got this tidbit from on the Timberlane Regional School District from the Tri-Town Times. Deb Armfield, Executive Director of Curriculum, Assessment and Professional Learning presented results of new student assessments to the school board at its first meeting in November. The STAR Assessment, as it’s called, is a universal screening tool, how’s that for edu-speak, given to students three times a year. It’s aligned to the Common Core and, says Armfield, is widely used. So, how did the kids fare as compared to other districts using these assessments? Well, as Armfield put it, quote “We need to do something. But we’ve known that. We have some work to do in our core.” With anywhere from a quarter to over forty percent of their kids scoring below benchmark on the tests designed to assess English and math capabilities, which on the low side is a score of forty, I’d say that Armfeld has a lawyer’s gift for understatement. The tests were given in grades two through eight. Sound familiar? Welcome to life under the Common Core. Is it me or maybe should the folks running that district, like Superintendent Earl Metzler, spend more time on stuff like this and less time sending emails about various elected officials trying to do harm to their reputations? Dunno, just asking what you think. We’ve linked to the story with all the sordid details.
Metzler: (Now spelled Metz-Liar) falsely accuses again.
Speaking of Metz-Liar, he responded to the sharp rebuke given him by Sandown Selectman Cindy Buco. You may recall from yesterday’s news reports that Buco had asked why Metz-Liar was sending emails attacking Sandown’s representatives on Timberlane’s school board and budget committee to the Board of Selectmen through Town Administrator Lynne Blaisdell. Was it to encourage respect and cooperation she asked? Why, yes it was, replied Metz-Liar, who asked her to reinforce the concept of working together.
Green: Exposes another Metzler misrepresentation
In the email, he included a link to information on the district’s Web site and said the information it contained was clearly posted there at the time Budget Committee Member Arthur Green asked for it. If that is true, why didn’t he simply send Green an email containing the link instead of charging him twenty bucks to get it, you might ask. Well, in response to Metz-Liar’s email, Green wrote the following to Buco. Quote: “The information referenced is the district’s response to my request for tax allocation information amongst the four towns. You may interpret this comment as suggesting that my request was unnecessary since the information is publicly posted. In fact, the information that I was obliged to demand under 91-A, and paid $20 to receive at 8:30AM on Nov 19, was posted on the district’s web site at 9:30AM on Nov 19. Clearly, instead of requesting this information on Nov. 2, receiving no response for a full week, submitting a 91-A Right to Know request on Nov. 9, being notified on Nov. 17 that the information was available, and paying for it on Nov. 19 at 8:30, I should simply have waited patiently for the information to be posted publicly on Nov. 19 at 9:30 AM, and saved a lot of bother.” End quote.
Green included the same members of both the school board and budget committee on his reply that Metz-Liar included in his most interesting response to Buco. One can only wonder if or when any of them will assert themselves on behalf of the integrity of the organizations they serve and say enough is enough of MetzLiar’s malicious mendacity.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Berry: Will be bye-bye
Will there or won’t there be a special meeting of the Hooksett School Board to discuss high school issues on Monday night? At its meeting on Tuesday, the board agreed to hold a special meeting on Monday to continue its review of the tuition agreement proposed by Pinkerton Academy. During the discussion, board member Mike Berry said he’d be traveling for business but, following questions by Board Chair Joanne McHugh, said he could participate via the phone so he wouldn’t miss anything. Only one member of the board said he wasn’t sure if he could attend as he had to check his schedule at home. That was John Lyscars. McHugh, at the time, basically said, we hope you can make it, but if you can’t, we’ll have a quorum and will proceed. Fair enough.
Lyscars: Not necessary for meeting?
Girard at Large has learned that Berry will not be able to participate by phone and has asked that the meeting be changed to a different time. McHugh initiated a poll of the board and we are still awaiting the results. This has upset members of the board and raised questions about whether or not mischievous things are afoot at the Hooksett School Board once again. Berry is a pro-Pinkerton kinda guy, where Lyscars is an advocate of the choice system the district’s developed. With votes expected to be close, one has to wonder whether catering to Berry and being willing to proceed without Lyscars, who can attend Monday’s meeting, is intentional. More to the point, there have been recent meetings, special ones at that, without other members, so what’s different about this that they’d not proceed with a meeting that’s been arranged despite having a quorum available? We’ll just have to wait and see. By the way, Girard at Large has also learned that some board members are planning to propose counter offers to Manchester’s rejected proposal at the special meeting, whenever it’s held.
Banfield & Emmet McGroarty will speak at SNHU conference
Silent No More: Pushing Back Against Federal Overreach. That’s the title of a seminar that’s coming to town tomorrow. Organizers say the elections have produced dramatic results and the American people are pushing back against an intrusive federal government that turns a blind eye to the Constitution and to the people, which it empowers and protects. Given the election results, they say now is the best, perhaps the last, time to save the great American Experiment. To that end, your attendance is requested at “Practical Federalism: How the Federal Government Is Silencing the People,” an important meeting to discuss what to do next to preserve the Constitution.
Naile: On the agenda
It will take place on tomorrow at Southern New Hampshire University and is sponsored by sponsors are Cornerstone Action, American Principles Project, Americans for Prosperity New Hampshire, and the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers. Guest speakers from around the country and will examine how the federal executive branch perverts the constitutional structure, reduces the state executive branch to being its administrative agent, and isolates, and at times excludes, the legislators and the people from decision-making. By way of example, it will include topics such as Common Core, land use policies, onerous environmental policies, Medicaid expansion, and Obamacare. The objective is to make this a central issue in New Hampshire’s public square, think First in the Nation Primary, If it does, it will quickly become a national issue of consequence. We’ve linked to their registration site from this newscast at Girard at Large dot com.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is next.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177978721″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]
