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PBealo · Site Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 307

check out www.timberlane.net for the 2009 - 2010 schedule.

Note the few vacation days in feb, and for teachers; a training day in the middle of them, so no trips for them! Also note how the April vacation does not appear to overlap with Salem NH's vacation, so our Voc kids attending Salem 1/2 day get no break. Seems a bit harsh on them.

Thoughts anyone??

Peter Bealo

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TRHSparent · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 147

With the new school calendar, you won't have to worry about teachers discounted tuition for their children. They will be looking for jobs elsewhere.

Le Canard · Joined: 16 Jun 2008 Posts: 106 Location: Danville

TRHSparent · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 147

Not my point. Non-resident teachers will need to look for child care during traditional February/April vacation if they can't afford full tuition into TRSD. My experience with the new hires at the HS have not been very good. I've had some great experience from non-resident teachers who enrolled their children into TRSD. I hate to see those teachers leave but if your happy with the quality of the new teachers that have been hired in the past couple years, than the recent SB decisions were good ones. For me, I'm not so happy.

KarenSteele · Joined: 11 Feb 2009 Posts: 14

So there are two 3-day weeks in February? Poor planning... though I can guess why they did it that way -- it still means 2 weeks of significantly less teaching & more movies.

I thought the whole reason for Feb vacation, and having it specifically the week after President's Day week, was to encourage families to go skiing and support NH's economy? (I'm not from around here -- this was just my impression). Is it engrained? Do a lot of people take a full week to go skiing? Will they still take a full week and just have their kids miss school?

I like that they've reduced the number of early release days.

TRHSparent · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 147

At last night's SB meeting, a few parent spoke in regards to the new school calendar for this fall. The SB listened. That's it. Was it a waste of time for these parents to address the SB? Does the SB get away with not answering the questions these parent pose to them? Is it draft a warrant article time?

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 321 Location: Danville, NH

Yes, the school board gets away with all that they do because no one is willing to run against the incumbents. We have had five new members join the budget committee in just over a year. It makes a difference. Last year we could not get a vote on televising the meetings, this year the vote was 4-4 and the chair has promised to bring the issue to the floor again in the fall.

In Danville, we have one school board member (Mrs. Champey) and one budget committee member (Mrs. O'Neil) on the ballot. Mrs. O'Neil voted against televising the meetings. Do you smell what I'm cooking?

Mrs. Lambert (Plaistow), Mrs. Collie (Sandown), and Mr. Dhaliwal (Plaistow) will also be up for re-election to the Budget Committee, and Mrs. Aubrey (Sandown), and Mrs. Withee (Plaistow) will be up for re-election to the school board. We have nearly a year to find candidates who will stand with us.

I can tell you that if I were a member of a school board that used nonpublic sessions to conceal information that put our kids at risk, that information would not be nonpublic for very long.

Let's find some candidates to run for School Board and Budget Committee.
_________________
"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher

PBealo · Site Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 307

Some TRSD parents from Plaistow took "the bull by the horns" and sent the following letter to Mr. LaSalle this Tuesday:

April 28, 2009

Mr. Richard LaSalle
Superintendent of Schools
Timberlane Regional School District
30 Greenough Road
Plaistow, NH 03865

Dear Mr. LaSalle,

We, parents of Timberlane Regional School District students, formally request an item to be added to the Timberlane Regional School District School Board Agenda to address:

• The concerns we presented to the Timberlane Regional School District School Board at the meeting held on April 16, 2009; regarding the approved 2009-2010 School Calendar.

• Reconsideration by the Timberlane Regional School District School Board to adopt a more traditional New Hampshire School Calendar for the 2009-2010 school year.

We would appreciate this item to be added to the Agenda as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

Paul Valhouli Tamara Valhouli
1 Poplar Drive 1 Poplar Drive
Plaistow, NH 03865 Plaistow, NH 03865

Monica Rooney Laurie Herchenroder
5 Collins Court 28 Partridge Lane
Plaistow, NH 03865 Plaistow, NH 03865

cc: Elizabeth Kosta, Chair
TRSD School Board
4 Evergreen Drive
Plaistow, NH 03865

PS: I (P Bealo) took the liberty of leaving their phone numbers off!

They got on the agenda for the May 7th School Board meeting. If anyone is concerned with the proposed vacation schedule, now is the time to speak up!! Be at the SAU board room at 7:30PM on Thursday May 7.

For future reference: it seems that to actually get a school board member to address questions and/or concerns you MUST be on the agenda, and only a school board member or Admin member can get you on the aganda. If you just shopw up to speak and are not on the agenda you'll just get your blood pressure raised since you will get absolutely zero response. The School Board is NOT like your Selectmen or Planning Board: the attitude and meeting format is MUCH different. Does it have to be?? I don't know.

Also on the agenda is a discussion of attendance Mon and Tues April 27 and 28. But attendance was not the whole issue: what the kids who showed up actually DID is at least as big a question...

Peter Bealo

NWhitman · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 16

For those of you who may be wondering about the 2009 - 10 calendar, the board vote (3) yes (2) no and (1) abstention to rescind the new calendar. So, the traditional calendar will now be in effect with Columbus Day, traditional February and April vacation days off. The SB most likely will have the calendar on the table again to determine Professional Development days and early release.

Note: A question was asked about the number of days required by teacher contract for Professional Develpoment and early release. The response was 5 Professional Development days. Seems like early release is not a requirement. Most people seem to be in agreement that early release is very disruptive and does not promote continuity. If it's NOT required, why can't we just get rid of those days? I'm all for keeping maybe 2 or 3 for parent/teacher conferences but anymore than that seems to be a waste of a school day.

DanvilleParent · Joined: 26 Aug 2008 Posts: 24

Actually, after watching the School Board meeting, the "traditional" calendar is not in effect. At this time NO calendar has been determined.
The School Board has until June 1 to present a new calendar to the State of NH.

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 321 Location: Danville, NH

NWhitman · Joined: 10 May 2008 Posts: 16

LenMullen · Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 321 Location: Danville, NH

It's not going to be possible to create a calendar that will satisfy all until people come clean on their priorities. Like every other school debate, this one is wrapped in too many 'for the children' deceptions to allow for honest debate. As I see it, here are the issues...

1) State requirements for days/hours of school
2) Continuity
3) Vacations
4) Day care
5) Vocational training
6) Make up days
7) Early release

The district must meet the state requirements of apply for a waiver. Nothing to negotiate here.

Continuity is the fog of this debate. Every move of the deck chairs is about continuity. If we want to have continuity, we need to define it. To me, continuity means having the kids in a classroom with their assigned teacher for 180 days per year. Eliminate early dismissals and on-calendar development to fix this.

Vacation seems the top issue in this debate. It's clear that most benefit from traditional vacations and that makeup days should not interrupt traditional vacations.

Day care is part of the vacation issue. Changing our calendar would introduce school employees with kids in other districts to the day care challenges the rest of us face with every early dismissal or late start. It's also an issue for parents who send their kids to day camp during vacations.

We have kids who leave the district for specialized education -- it's not just vocational, but voc-tech commuters have gotten the most attention. These kids spend a half day in another district. Do we have them do half days during conflicted days or miss days of education? Again, it makes sense to maintain traditional vacations.

Weather is the root cause of the chaos. This is out of our control, for the most part. We can, however, use historical data to predict its impact and must the the WORST CASE to plan. This year, the School Board scheduled makeup days into July. Either they planned to ask for a waiver, they expected no snow days, or they are stupid. My gut tells me they were counting on a waiver...for the children, no doubt.

Early release and late start are the district's preferred solution. On December 22, 2008, Mr. La Salle had the kids bussed into unheated schools for a couple hours so that the district would not have to make up another day -- no teaching was done on that day. This solution is coming under scrutiny. Parents are concerned at the impact of twenty half days on their children's education. I wish our educators were more interested in teaching.

What's the answer?

First we have to layout the goals...

1) No partial days on the calendar
2) Vacations consistent with co-op partnets
3) Five day school weeks
4) Minimal impact on daycare
5) Meet state requirements without waivers

The state's model calendar recommends ten makeup days.

I propose we base our calendar on the traditional model -- or, if you prefer, the original 2008-2009 calendar -- with these modifications...

1) all early release days are converted to FULL teaching days
2) the Friday before each vacation (Wed before Thanksgiving) is scheduled as a FULL day of teacher development
3) The Saturday following the return from each vacation is scheduled as a FULL day of teacher development
4) The school year is extended to accomodate the extra development days

This gives us one makeup day before each vacation. This would not impact plans. As each vacation approached, the district could decide whether the Friday should be used as a makeup. If it must be used this way, the teachers would come in Saturday the weekend following the return to school. This would preserve their development without encroaching on their vacation plans -- as we saw last weeks, the teachers will not forego vacations. We pay those who show up.

I don't see any reason for extracurricular activities to be tied to the last day of school. You can do the cap and gown stuff before the last day of classes.
_________________
"I've been teaching here for 20 years so please don't assume that kids can add, subtract, multiply and divide integers without problems. Especially subtraction, as I found that many have trouble with." TRMS Math Teacher

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