The Hooksett Banner ­ September 23, 2004

Just a rumor $1M school surplus will cut town taxes Secret spots in old house inspire play on slavery $350,000 still needed to build new library Candia changes testing to track students' progress Butterfly garden featured in textbooks	Are you interested in chatting about Hooksett issues? Want to help plan Hooksett's future? Check out the new Internet chat group begun by the master plan committee at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hooksett_chat/ Auburn has a similar group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/auburn/

Allenstown

Just a rumor

Town, school officials say there's no plan to build new schools, give AES to town

By RUSS CHOMA
Staff Writer
rchoma@yourneighborhoodnews.com

Despite rumors of a large, complex town and school construction plan being in the works, school building planning officials say they're only planning to push ahead with an expansion to Allenstown Elementary School.

The rumor mill was set in motion by a note in the parish newsletter of Allenstown's St. John the Baptist Catholic church, which suggested a major town/school construction project was in the works.

Specifically, the rumor began spreading that the Allenstown School Board was planning to build a brand new K-8 school, turn Allenstown Elementary School over to the town for use as town offices/police department/highway department garage and sell Armand Dupont School to the Catholic church.

Based on these rumors, concerned and curious residents flooded a Sept. 8 joint meeting of the town and school building committees. At that meeting, members of each committee quickly shut down the rumor mill ­ at least for now.

Sitting in the Allenstown Elementary School library, Tom Irzyk, a school board member and chairman of the new school planning committee, said the concept had merits, but wasn't ready.

"That idea would only come to fruition if the selectmen and the school board come to an agreement that this building (AES) meets their needs," he said.

Irzyk said the school planning committee is considering a number of options, including the possibility of a new K-8 school and a new K-5 school. However, he said, an expansion to AES is still the plan the committee will push for at the School District Meeting in March.

That plan calls for an expansion of the existing building at an estimated cost of $3.3 million. Although a similar $2.8 million plan failed at the 2003 School District Meeting ­ by only nine votes ­ planners say new state building aid schemes could make the plan more palatable to voters.

Under the current funding scheme, revised last year, the state would pay for 60 percent of the construction costs ­ about $2 million.

The current proposed renovations, which are still in the planning stages and are not definitely going before voters in March, would only cost Allenstown taxpayers $1.3 million in local tax money.

Combo plan not dead yet

Officials say both sides of town government ­ school and town ­ are in dire need of new facilities.

Although the fire department has a relatively new home, the police department still shares cramped quarters with the town offices, Selectman Sandy McKenny said. Voters may also have to contend with the possibility of funding work on the sewage treatment plant in the coming years.

School officials have argued for years that both Allenstown Elementary School and Armand Dupont are overcrowded and badly in need of upgrades.

Based on the community's needs and the possibility that so much state aid is available to Allenstown for school construction, but not town projects, several at the meeting said it would be unwise to totally toss out a combination plan.

If the aid allowed a new school to be built on the cheap, members of both town and school construction planning committees said, renovating the elementary school building for the town might be a good alternative.

"Why not let the state pay for 60 percent of the town's needs, not just the school's (needs)?" asked Irzyk.

Selectman Arthur Houle, who is on the town building committee, cautioned those in attendance that "we're a long ways from anything," but said it might make fiscal sense to try and combine the two projects.

"At the end of the day, it's one tax bill," Houle said, referring to the fact that despite having separate leadership, both school and town government is funded by the same taxpayers. "I think its great we're at least in the same room (with school planners) talking."

Despite the optimism over potential savings from a combination, Irzyk said the school planning committee is only looking to clean up the last details of its renovation plan.

"The school board building committee is pretty much done," he said. "(An attempt to combine projects) is going to come down from the school board directly."

Hooksett

$1M school surplus will cut town taxes

By JENNIFER CLAISE
Staff Writer
jclaise@yourneighborhoodnews.com

The Hooksett School Board is not requesting to use any of the money from recent unanticipated state adequacy grants, but is choosing instead to use the more than $1 million to help offset the tax rate.

The decision to return the extra $1.2 million should shave about a dollar off the tax rate, according to SAU 15 Superintendent Armand LaSelva.

Despite being dealt a default budget by voters in March, school board Chairman James Sullivan said that the district is not feeling squeezed by financial restraints.

"There's nothing that we have a need for to fulfill our educational purposes, and we feel comfortable with what we have at this point," Sullivan said.

By voting against the proposed budget, the town cut about $218,000 from the proposed spending plan. Some attributed the default budget to the new $14 million middle school and $8 million elementary school renovation, which caused a significant tax increase.

However, in June the board decided to use $225,000 that was left over from the previous year to purchase textbooks and supplies, thereby freeing up money to implement some of the plans from the proposed budget, LaSelva said.

An assistant principal position at Memorial School was added, along with a first-grade teacher position.

And while Sullivan said the board didn't feel direct pressure from the town to leave the money alone, it was a feeling that could be sensed clearly by each of the members.

"You always hear rumblings about the tax rate, and especially this year with the revaluation, we felt the obligation to send the money back to offset taxes," Sullivan said.

LaSelva added while schools always have needs, the district is well aware of the needs of the town as well.

"We could sit here and come up with needs, but that would give the impression that we're gluttonous," LaSelva said. "We felt that we should think of other needs and not start asking for things that weren't expressed in the budget process."

Back in March, school districts across the state had to estimate the amount of state aid they would receive and include it in the budget they presented to voters. But many of the numbers turned out to be too low, since calculations used to determine aid have changed.

In Candia, which is in the same SAU as Hooksett, the board will ask voters to approve the use of about $100,000 of the $280,000 surplus to fix cracking roof support beams at Moore School. A special school district vote to authorize the spending will be held Thursday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.

Candia

Secret spots in old house inspire play on slavery

By JENNIFER CLAISE
Staff Writer
jclaise@yourneighborhoodnews.com

Once Eileen Suckley had heard the stories of children playing in the dark, secret hiding spots behind the fireplaces in a 1770 Candia home ­ which is rumored to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad ­ she couldn't get the images out of her head.

So she embraced them, she said, and cites them as the inspiration for her first play, "Bonds of Iron," the coming-of-age story of an escaped slave that will be performed this fall by the seventh- and eighth-graders she teaches at Moore School.

Suckley, a language arts teacher, first heard about the house on High Street from owner Rick Zang, who was her math professor at the University of New Hampshire - Manchester.

"He told me that he believed his house might have been a stop on the Underground Railroad," Suckley said, "and certainly the size of the fireplaces and the space behind them would lend themselves to that interpretation."

And Claire Zarges, who owned the home before Zang bought it in 1997, told Suckley stories that fed her imagination even more. "(She) told me how much her children enjoyed playing in that 'secret space,' startling the rest of the family with mysterious tapping sounds," Suckley said. Indeed, the old colonial home is full of secret spots, including a space between the dining room and living room fireplaces that's large enough to hold one person, and a passage near the stairs that is big enough to allow four or five men to stand comfortably inside. "Many old colonial houses have them, and it would be misleading to say that they were built to be hiding spots," Zang said. "But certainly, the features of a center chimney colonial lend themselves to that purpose." However, it's difficult to find proof that the home was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and Zang said he has largely relied on oral history to gain information about the house. The National Park Service keeps a register of historic places, but the home is not listed there as an official Underground Railroad spot yet, he added.

PART OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD? Rick Zang, the owner of a 1770 colonial house on High Street in Candia, plays the banjo in the dining room in front of one of his home's six fireplaces. The space between this fireplace and the one located behind it in the living room is big enough to hide an adult. (Jennifer Claise Photo)

Still, Suckley said, the home lends itself to many dramatic possibilities, and she kept it in mind while working on the play, she said.

Noah, the escaped slave who is one of the story's main characters, yearns for a "human connection," Suckley said, despite seeming angry and bitter on the outside. Callie, a local girl who helps him, is torn between her obligation to her family and her desire to attend college. And the retired professor Dr. Talbot, who interacts with both Noah and Callie, is forced to confront his own disappointment and resentment as the plot unfolds.

"Above all, they will have to trust each other ­ something none of the three is anxious to do," Suckley said.

Suckley said it was important for her to create a storyline that her students could relate to, and to do something that pertains to local history.

"The characters in the play are teenagers, but because it's set in the 1800s, they're older at 13 and 14 than kids are today," Suckley said.

And the play's theme of moving on is certainly one that her students can identify with, she added.

"A lot of my kids joke about the limitations of Candia ­ its small size and limited social offerings," Suckley said. "I continually remind them of the richness that is here, and the people who do extraordinary things, often armed with nothing more than a great idea and an unlimited supply of energy, commitment and enthusiasm.

"They roll their eyes, but I continue to underscore the idea," she added. "Like a lot of things in teaching, it's sowing for a harvest I may never see."

Suckley said students would get copies of the script Monday, Sept. 21, and have about a week before auditions begin. The performance of "Bonds of Iron" is scheduled for early November.

Epsom

$350,000 still needed to build new library

By JODI WOLFE
Staff Writer
jwolfe@yourneighborhoodnews.com

After approximately 20 years of effort to build a new library, the town of Epsom may be enjoying just that in the next year.

"We're at a point where things are coming together, which is wonderful," said Valerie Long, chairman of the Epsom Public Library Capital Campaign Committee. "It's pretty exciting."

Library Director Nancy Claris agreed.

"It's something," said Claris.

The Epsom Public Library Capital Campaign Committee is an independent group working under the trustees of the library to raise money. Another $350,000 is needed to reach the $1 million for the committee's fundraising goal. Of that $1 million, $750,000 will go toward the building itself, and the rest will go toward the interior of the building, said Long.

"We are planning to break ground in the spring of 2005," Long said.

However, the hardest part of the campaign is the last of the $1 million, so it's important that people give now if they can, she said.
The current library was built in 1901 and is no longer adequate for the size of the town, which has a population of 4,200.

It is not handicap-accessible, and there are only six parking spaces and one adult-sized chair, said Long.

Membership has also gone up in the past couple years, said Claris.

The town purchased the land behind the old town hall off Route 4 to build the library a couple of years ago for a combination town hall and library, but the citizens of Epsom voted not to use the town's money for that project.

In 2003, the committee received a grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to do a feasibility study on the new library to find what the citizens of Epsom wanted. The study found that the citizens wanted a new library that was no more than $1 million and not too fancy. The citizens also said they would be willing to donate money, said Long.

The study also found that there needed to be public/private partnership in the fundraising campaign. One third of the cost the town already had, one third is coming from the town, and one third from grants and private donors. A bond for $250,000 to go to the library was passed in March.

The campaign has had some generous benefactors, said Long. One family donated land worth $120,000 that is currently up for sale and another family donated $50,000. The Friends of the Library, a volunteer group, has pledged $5,000. The group raised $320 through its lemonade stand at Epsom Old Home Day and $1,300 from its mum sale. The Friends will put on a food sale during the November election.

The committee is currently working on applying for grants for the campaign, said Long. One has been sent to the Bank of New Hampshire, one is being sent to Citizens Bank, and one is being sent to the Kresge Foundation.

"We feel we are going to make it," said Long. "We have a wonderful group of people."

For Long, an effort to push for the new library happened five years ago when she first moved to town and began volunteering at the library entering data. In the same room where she was entering data, a man was being tutored in reading. She was embarrassed for the man because the lack of space in the library forced him to be tutored without privacy.

"For me, that was the driving force to get a new library," she said. "I just thought it's gotta change."

They hope to build social capital and reduce crime, said Long. It would help build bonds, relationships and community.
"People start to care more," Long said.

She is very excited.

"It's really going to be a community thing," she said. "There'll be a meeting room (and) other groups can meet there."

The library could start an after-school program, said Claris.

To contribute to the capital campaign, send donations to the Epsom Public Library, 1775 Dover Road, Epsom NH 03234 or use PayPal on their Web site at http://www.epsomlibrary. com.

Candia

Candia changes testing to track students' progress

By JENNIFER CLAISE
Staff Writer
jclaise@yourneighborhoodnews.com

School officials say Candia's students have made adequate yearly progress during the past school year under standards derived from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and they have continued to perform better than the majority of students in a nationwide test.

New Hampshire Educational Improvement and Assessment Program test results show that 72 percent of third-graders scored "basic" or above on the reading section of the testing, which ranks students in the categories of "novice," "basic," "proficient," and "advanced." Among sixth-grade students, 77 percent scored "basic" or above on the reading section.

Seventy-nine percent of both third- and sixth-graders also hit or passed the "basic" level in the math test.

According to the No Child Left Behind Act, at least 60 percent of students in certain grades and subgroups must receive at least a "basic" score in the testing.

According to school board Chairman Karen Smith, officials are pleased with the scores, but will continue to push for better results.
"We have seen some improvements, but we're not quite where we want to be yet," Smith said.

In last year's testing, Smith noted, no sixth-grade students got an "advanced" score, but in the 2004 test, seven students reached that goal.

However, she said, the NHEIAP ­ which tests students in grades 3, 6 and 10 in the state ­ is slated to be replaced next fall by the New England Common Assessment Program, which will be given to all students in grades 3 through 8 in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Unlike, the NHEIAP, the new testing will track individual student results year after year.

And although her district performed well in the testing, Smith questioned whether any test can adequately measure the real progress students are making.

Citing a recent New York Times article, Smith said that so-called "superstar schools with gobs of money to spend" are getting failing marks, often because special education student results are factored into the testing.

"Special education kids could be having huge success - making leaps and bounds ­ and still, they are being set up to fail," Smith said. "It's like comparing apples and oranges. And this is not happening only in New Hampshire, it's going on across the country, whether the schools have a lot of money to spend or a little money to spend."

Candia students are more directly compared to students nationwide in the annual TerraNova test, which measures general knowledge in reading, language, math, science and social studies of students across the country.

"The TerraNova measures national standards on curriculum rather than the New Hampshire state framework," Smith said.

Results of this test, which is given to fifth- and seventh-graders, show that the town's students have performed better than a majority of students nationwide for the past two years, Smith said.

Students in each grade are ranked in the 60th, 70th and 80th percentiles in every category, the results show.

But Smith noted that Candia only had 41 students in the fifth grade in 2004, and only 50 in the seventh grade.

"All you need is one kid to do really poorly to bring the score down," Smith said.

She added that with any form of testing, students tend to become apathetic when they realize the results will have no real consequence for them.

"For the older kids, especially the 10th graders, the tests may not be a good reflection of where they're at. They're thinking about their grades, and the SATs, and they know this is not going to help them get into college," Smith said.

Still, she added, testing can be valuable, and the district plans to pilot a new test ­ the Northwest Evaluation Association's computerized testing program ­ beginning the week of Sept. 20.

The tests, which are called Measures of Academic Progress, are given to each student on the computer, and are designed to adapt to each student's level of skill; if the student answers a question correctly, the questions get harder, and if the student answers it incorrectly, the questions get easier. This continues until the student's level of skill is determined.

But what's most important about these new tests ­ which measure students' ability in reading, language usage and math ­ is that the results are instant and more individualized, Smith said.

"We've come to realize that you can't really compare two different years of kids," Smith said. "You have to pay attention to the same group and see how they're doing as individuals."

And, because teachers will get results right away, they can make changes in the classroom almost immediately.

"With the current testing in May, we don't get the results until August or September, and by that time those kids are gone ­ there's nothing more we can do with them. Now we'll be able to adjust the teaching accordingly," Smith said.

The pilot program will test students in grades 5 and 7, and will last for a couple of weeks, Smith said. Eventually, students in all grades could be tested up to four times a year.

Candia

Butterfly garden featured in textbooks

By JENNIFER CLAISE
Staff Writer
jclaise@yourneighborhoodnews.com

Maybe first graders at Moore School will be a bit more eager to crack into their social studies textbooks this year if they know that their own school is featured within its pages. That's because a spread in the new "Harcourt Horizons" series features the school's butterfly garden, along with some of the students who began work on it several years ago. According to Judi Lindsey, a "different talents" teacher who works with students in grades three through eight, the idea for a garden first came to her out of a desire to spruce up the school's appearance back in 2000. "There was just this empty dilapidated spot in front of the school," Lindsey said. "It was really unsightly, and I wondered if we could do something with it." That's when she began to do some research on how to construct a butterfly garden, choosing the right types of flowers, and getting the community on board for support. Lindsey said she gave each of her students an empty paper grid representing the available space, and told them to design the garden however they would like it.

MOORE SCHOOL IN PRINT ­ Standing in the entrance to the butterfly garden at Candia Moore School, teacher Judi Lindsey shows off the two-page spread on the garden in the teacher's edition of "Harcourt Horizons," a first-grade social studies text that is being used at the school this year. It features photos of the school's garden. (Jennifer Claise Photo)

"Then I tried to incorporate ideas from everyone's grids into the final design," Lindsey said.

An environmental grant from Wal-Mart, contributions from the NEA and donations of raw materials from New Hampshire Landscaping and members of the community helped the job move along more easily, Lindsey said.

And so did the work that students and members of the community did with preparing and planting the actual garden, which took about a year to come together, from start to finish, Lindsey added.

It wasn't long before Gail Stanley, a fifth-grade teacher at Moore School, entered Lindsey into a hometown hero contest in the Ford Motor Corporation's "Time For Kids" series. After an interview, and sending in several pictures of the garden and the hard-working students and volunteers, Lindsey won the contest and the garden was featured across several full-color pages in spring 2001.

"It was very exciting," Lindsey said.

It was then that officials from the Orlando, Fla., -based Harcourt School Publishers saw the feature on the garden and contacted the school about featuring it in their series, which serves students from all over the country, Lindsey said.

She was paid $175 each for four photos for the text, and $175 each for three photos for the Web site ­ a total of $1,225.

"And all of that money went right back into the garden," Lindsey said.

Of course, by this time Lindsey had long realized that the garden was more than just an aesthetic pleasure ­ it was an opportunity to give students a hands-on learning experience.

"What better way to teach certain aspects of the curriculum than to incorporate the garden?" Lindsey said. "They learn about the plants and flowers, and the many insects, birds and frogs who make the garden their home, and about the environment as a whole."

This year, it was time for school officials to choose a new first-grade social studies text, and when it came down to "Harcourt Horizons" and another book, the choice was clear.

And she hopes that the small garden at Moore School will serve as an example for other students across the country.

"It's a great example of how you can take something drab and useless and turn it into something beautiful and enriching," she said.