MSD: Making changes without consultation of those affected
Starting in November, the school day in Manchester will begin later in the morning and end later in the afternoon as the hours for elementary, middle and high schools are being adjusted based on the recently approved teachers’ contract. The newly bargained schedule will take effect on Monday, November 30, 2015.
An hours-based academic calendar is included in the contract, which means longer school days and three built-in snow days that don’t have to be made up in June. The anticipated last day of school, assuming fewer than four snow days, is Thursday, June 9.
Under the schedule, the first graduating class from MST High School will hold its commencement on Friday, June third, while West, Memorial, and Central will graduate on Saturday, June fourth.
The Manchester Education Association and the Manchester School District worked to create the new schedules. The school district said in a news release that it has been planning for the change to ensure a smooth transition for schools and families. New bus schedules won’t be available until early November.
The contract also designates a day in January or February as a teacher professional learning day once a date has been chosen for the upcoming presidential primary. Students will not attend school on that day. The new schedule is as follows:
Elementary schools 8:45 am 2:50 pm
Morning preschool 9:15 am 11:45 am
Afternoon preschool 12:45 pm 3:15 pm
Full-day preschool 9:00 am 2:00 pm
Middle school 7:35 am 2:20 pm
High school 7:45 am 2:53 pm
Lyscars: Announcement came as a surprise
Reaction to the announcement, which was made on Friday, came pretty swiftly on social media. The overwhelming majority of those who commented on and shared the post on the district’s Facebook page were not pleased with the announcement, especially regarding the elementary school changes. Multiple parents voiced concerns over how it will affect their ability to get to work on time. Several criticized the district for being more concerned with placating the union rather than parents.
The district’s announcement made no mention of whether or not they’d worked with the tuition towns or charter, private and parochial schools who will be effected by this change to develop the schedule. According to a social media post by Hooksett School Board Member John Lyscars, the announcement caught Hooksett completely by surprise.
Why the rush to implement?
Of course, if the lawsuit filed against the city to invalidate the votes aldermen Ron Ludwig, Barbara Shaw and Normand Gamache on the teachers’ contract is successful, the district will likely return to the current schedule. A hearing on that suit is a week from tomorrow. One would think they’d await the outcome of the hearing for the preliminary injunction before plowing ahead with something that just might not happen.
“Operation Granite Hammer,” the Manchester Police Department’s effort to round up street level drug dealers pulled eighteen people off the streets last week on a variety of charges ranging from possession of a controlled substance to trafficking in those substances. The cops grabbed thousands in cash and a multitude of drugs including pot, pills, coke, crack and smack, that’s heroin, among others.
MPD: Granite Hammer continues to round up street level dealers
The public first learned about Granite Hammer last week when Governor Margaret Wood Hassan came to the city to announce the award of one hundred fifty thousand dollars in grants to the State Police so they could add about twelve hundred hours of trooper time to assist interdiction efforts and make a dent in the state lab’s huge backlog of drug cases awaiting analysis. State and federal authorities were alongside Manchester’s finest as they swung the Granite Hammer.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
The Manchester Police Department, the Manchester Police Athletic League, and Member’s First Credit Union will host the ninth annual Footrace for the Fallen 5 K road race on October 11th. The Footrace for the Fallen honors all fallen police officers and began in 2007 – a year after Manchester Police Officer Michael Briggs was killed in the line of duty. All proceeds from the race benefit the Manchester Police Athletic League, a center city organization that connects police officers with youth through sports and recreational activities.
More information about the race and a link to registration can be found at foot race for the fallen dot org.
O’Neil: Lowers the boom on Timberlane, again.
Dr. Metzler and Mr. Collins, how can you say that the District is ‘transparent’ to this community when you are not transparent to your fellow Board members? It is clear that Ms. Steenson, as Chairwoman, was not aware of the release of information by the SAU. I suspect than many of your fellow Board members were not aware either. I have seen in our schools, that you oversee, a very powerful and inspirational passage, “Character – Doing the right thing when nobody is watching”. How would you define your Character at this time?
Upon receipt of a written apology to the Danville Board of Selectmen and our staff, as a courtesy to the district, we will destroy the data, which we believe is NOT a FERPA violation but a School Board policy violation which is NOT applicable to the Town of Danville.
Thank you,
Shawn O’Neil
Chairman
Board of Selectmen
Town of Danville, New Hampshire
Metzler: Exposed for selectively releasing info
That’s how a letter from O’Neil to the Timberlane Regional School District School Board and its Supreme Ruler Earl F. Metzler, II drew to a close after he presented a devastating time line of events dating back to the beginning of the year. O’Neil presented the letter at last Thursday’s meeting of the board in response to Metzler’s public charges that Danville was illegally in possession of the information, which they’d requested from the board in order to rework their impact fee ordinance.
Impact fees are assessed against residential developments to offset certain school costs.
Listeners of this show may recall that the board refused to grant an exception to its policy allowing the town to have the so-called “directory information,” which included the names and addresses of the students from its town that attended Timberlane schools, even though every parent in the district had signed, as a matter of course, a document acknowledging that information may be released by the district. We’ve linked to the letter and the entire story on Timberlane School Board Member Donna Green’s blog, which includes her reporting that at its prior meeting, the board illegally entered non public session to discuss this matter under the guise of protecting an employee’s reputation. Nice.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is next!
