News

Incoming students lower fund balance, stall school board action

By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
GRANTHAM — On Tuesday the school board held, as required, a public hearing regarding a

funding transfer that was authorized by district voters at its earlier annual meeting. No member of the public attended.

The item at issue was a transfer of $50,000 of an unassigned fund balance, if available, to the Tuition Trust Fund. However, district Superintendent Sydney Leggett told the board that due to some seven new students entering school, the unassigned fund balance may be lower than expected. Specifically, the unassigned balance now is $190,000, but $100,000 of that is earmarked for special education, she said. Leggett recommended that the board take no action, pending the results of a coming audit. The board decided to take no action on the matter, and closed the public hearing.

In other matters, Grantham Village School Principal Heather Cantagallo presented results of last year’s first New Hampshire State Assessment System tests. The new tests, implemented last year, are administered by computer, and results are available as soon as the testing sessions are done. They replaced the earlier Smarter Balanced assessments.

For Grantham, tests were generally above the state average, she said. “I think they are off to a good start.”

As a result of action by the state legislature, said Leggett, parents can exempt their children from taking the new NHSAS tests, and the school district will need to implement that policy. That can happen anytime before next year’s assessment, which she said are scheduled to begin March 19, 2019.

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