News

Student report highlight of school board meeting

By GLYNIS HART
[email protected]
CLAREMONT — Student Representative Jesse Baril’s report was the highlight of this week’s school board meeting, which otherwise was largely devoted to a nonpublic session that lasted more than an hour. 

The nonpublic session was inconclusive, as the board met with the district’s lawyer to talk about a school funding lawsuit. 

Chair Frank Sprague said the lawsuit was something the board is looking into. “There’s really nothing to share,” he said. “We’re waiting to see how things unfold legislatively.” 

Baril and Prescott Herzog are the two student representatives on the school board. Baril apologized that most of the items he reported were at Stevens High School. 

First, “Donkey Ball was a huge success,” said Baril. “Fans overflowed from the bleachers to the floor, sitting and standing to watch team Pigs in a Blanket (Claremont Police Department) take home the championship.” 

Nearly 475 tickets were sold. The funds raised will go to Project Red and Blue, a summer camp for sixth graders directed by the Claremont Police Department. 

The National Honor Society and National Art Honor Society raised money to purchase sheets of Homasote board for display space for student art throughout the schools. On Community Service Day, April 19, students will paint the boards. Students will also be performing community service by volunteering in Claremont or working on beautification or clean-up projects on campus. 

The high school’s Youth and Government students have been practicing running bills through committee. They went to a Pre-Legislature class on March 16 and attended an overnight trip to Concord on April 5-6. Students in this group are serving as chair of a committee, a co-chair, and President Pro Tempore of the Senate. Other students are serving in the press corps, as lobbyists and legislators.

The SAU#6 district is conducting an anonymous School Climate Survey of students, families and staff. Board member Rebecca Zullo wondered if parents could see their children’s answers. There doesn’t appear to be a route for doing so. 

Sugar River Valley Tech Center is planning summer camps for sixth, seventh and eighth graders. The camps will be in the culinary, construction, accounting and computer programs. 

A new running club, Finding Our Stride, is starting this month at Claremont Middle School. Practices will be held Mondays and Wednesdays 2:30 to 4 p.m. and are open to all. 

“Claremont Middle School is trying to implement more project-based activities in its math classes,” said Baril. “This month they began the study of irrational numbers and the Pythagorean Theorem. In doing so, they found that the period of a pendulum is connected to the square root of the string it is attached to.” 

On April 13 and 14, the middle school drama club will present Trial of the Wicked Witch. 

Cory LeClair is the acting superintendent of schools again, while the district negotiates a contract with incoming superintendent Michael Tempesta. LeClair made her superintendent’s report brief, thanking Dartmouth College students in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity for bringing Claremont third graders to the Montshire Museum. The fraternity rents the museum, takes the students around it, and then serves pizza. 

“They engage our students in the different exhibits and our students get a slew of brand-new books when they leave,” said LeClair. Students from all three elementary schools will go on the field trip to the museum on April 11. 

LeClair encouraged anyone with an up-and-coming kindergarten student to register the child early. “It really helps us plan for the fall,” she said. 

Children who will have turned 5 years old by Sept. 30, 2019 are eligible for kindergarten. 

The board accepted two donations: One from the Couch Family Foundation for $21,150. This donation will support a program in which the students in the building trades at SRVRTC build equipment for the early childhood program. A second grant is from the Public School Infrastructure Fund for security upgrades. 

This amount, $141,000, was on the town warrant last year and approved by voters. It garners matching funds of around $470,000. 

The American Legion, including the Women’s Auxiliary, donated $760 to support students going on the eighth grade class trip. 

The board voted to accept all donations.

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