Weare

John Stark Regional High School Principal Michael Turmelle, a veteran of the school before he took the reins for three years, has submitted his letter of resignation.

“He will certainly be missed at John Stark,” said Interim Superintendent Pam Shepard. “He’s had a very positive impact on the education of our students, and has led the school through some organizational changes. And he has changed the way we have delivered educational services with forward thinking, always in keeping with the needs of individual students in mind.”

Shepard said it is her understanding that Turmelle is going to Sanborn Regional High School in Kingston.

The decision, coming near the end of the school year, means there will be some quick decision making by the John Stark School Board at its next meeting.

“The board will be discussing how to proceed at the June 9 meeting,” Shepard said. “Ultimately it does mean a principal search, whether that happens now or they decide to hire an interim principal.”

The school board of John Stark Regional High School presented the public with something unusual Tuesday night, a proposed budget that is actually lower than the default budget. Even by the end of the hearing, during which two amendments were carried that added money back into the budget, the proposed budget remained about $67,000 lower than the $14,091,578 default.

The school board based its decision to create a lower budget partly on what they saw as a public desire to decrease the tax burden. Board member Mark Zuckerman reminded the audience that in the last two years, when the default budget was lower than the proposed budget, taxpayers had approved the default.

“The message the board took” from that response, said Mr. Zuckerman, “was to take a hard look at where the budget can be restrained.”

The board also cited the declining student population as rationale for proposing a lower-than-default budget. Addressing regrets from the audience about the personal impact of staff reductions, John Stark Principal Michael Turmelle said, “I’ve been in this building for 12 years, and it’s hard any time we have to talk about reductions.”

The John Stark Regional High School school board and administration are proposing a budget that will actually be less than the default budget. Their Session I meeting will be held on Feb. 2, at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria, at which the public will be able to amend the budget. The ballot vote will take place March 9.

High School Principal Michael J. Turmelle said the student population is staying stable or slightly decreasing. So, although the school is decreasing its staff accordingly, they are choosing to do so through attrition, or retirement, rather than reduction in forces.

There will be a 1.6 reduction in teachers in English, Math and Art. These full time positions will be reduced approximately 40 percent apiece. There are also two support staff positions that will be eliminated. Although the teaching positions will be reduced through attrition, the support staff will not because no support staff are retiring.

The superintendent of School Administrative Unit (SAU) 24, serving the Henniker, John Stark, Stoddard and Weare school districts has tendered his resignation in favor of accepting a position with a school district neighboring his hometown in Massachusetts.
Doug White has worked at the helm of the SAU for five years, first as assistant superintendent, then as superintendent.
“The SAU board met last night, and we developed a steering committee for the superintendent search,” said Theresa Maier, chairman of the Henniker school board. “Doug has always kept us informed that he had been in the running for this position, so it didn’t come as a surprise. We knew he was a contender. Of course they picked him – he’s so good.”
The primary reason White is leaving is because he has been leaving his family behind each week for five days for the five years he has been at the SAU. White and his family, including his grandchildren, all live in Plymouth, Mass.

The addition of campgrounds to the definition of a hotel under the meals and rooms tax in House Bill 2, signed into law on June 30, 2009, is still causing quite a stir for local campground owners and managers.
“It wasn’t talked about. It wasn’t debated. We weren’t represented. There was never any dialogue between the New Hampshire Campground Owner’s Association and the government,” said one local campground manager.
Bob French, the owner of Mile-Away Campground in Henniker and the Vice President of the New Hampshire Campground Owner’s Association, found out about the addition of campgrounds to the tax through watching WMUR-TV as the bill was getting ready to go into the legislator for the final vote. He then called the Executive Director, Gregg Pitman, who had not known of the change in the tax either.
With the bill being at that stage, the only thing legislators could do was vote “nay” on the entire budget. “There was no chance to amend it,” stated Gary Richardson (D) of Hopkinton.

Local representatives are standing firm in their views of safe driving, which means no texting while driving and a mandatory safety belt law.
HB34, the bill that prohibits writing a text message while driving, was recently passed by the House and the Senate and was signed into law by Governor Lynch on July 31st.
All our local representatives including: Ron Mack (D), Gil Shattuck (D), and Phil Harvey (D) of Hillsborough and Antrim; Catriona Beck (D) of Deering; Christine Hamm (D), Derek Owen (D), and Gary Richardson (D) of Hopkinton; and Barbara French (D) and Beth Rodd (D) of Henniker voted in favor of the bill. The only local representative who did not vote for HB34 was Claudia Chase (D) of Deering, who was not available for comment.
“It’s so obviously dangerous,” said Rep. Christine Hamm (D). “All studies have shown how dangerous it is.”
Rep. Derek Owen (D) stated that he sat beside the sponsor and was “all for it.”
The problem with this new law, which becomes effective on January 1, 2010, is that it is hard to enforce, a point brought up by Rep. Gary Richardson (D)of Hopkinton, but who still states that the bill is “good legislation.”

A fatal accident claimed the life of 17-year old Sean Sandmann of Weare on Monday afternoon after Sandmann’s motorcycle crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with a pickup truck.
Sandmann, a rising senior at John Stark Regional High School and employee at Shaw’s Supermarket in Hillsborough, was traveling east on Reservoir Road when he crossed into the westbound lane and was struck by Michael Pelletier, 50, also of Weare.
“Everybody is in mourning here at the high school,” John Stark principal Michael Turmelle said Tuesday. “I think everyone’s first response was really one of mourning and sorrow for the family.”
Police received a call about the accident at 1:13 p.m. Monday. According to police reports, CPR was administered on the scene and Sandmann was transported to Concord Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Sandmann was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident, and neither drugs nor alcohol appear to be factors in the crash, the police said. Pelletier was uninjured.
One local news report stated that Sandmann was on his way home to change his clothes before going to work at Shaw’s.

Between the squish of soggy grass and the scent of smoky cannon fire Saturday morning,A group of graduates including Shawn Lyons, Liam Tupper, Brittany Hewey and Alex Goodman celebrate after John Stark's graduation. 178 graduates at John Stark Regional High School were encouraged to tackle their ensuing challenges with fearless abandon and defy those who claim the odds are stacked against them.
Under a tent pitched on a football field left saturated from days of constant rain, the graduates tip-toed in on the spongy turf and marched out under steel-gray skies that cooperated with dry conditions for the two-hour ceremony, armed with not only their diplomas but also the push to set and reach their own goals.

The No Child Left Behind Act has left some schools squirming in the grip of test scores that do not meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), yet which place them far ahead of many lower scoring schools that did make AYP. This is the case with the Henniker Community and John Stark Regional High Schools.
Although the Henniker Community School scored 92.6 in the index for Reading, beating this year’s state target of an index of 86, it did not improve enough this year to make AYP in Reading. In Math, the school scored 89.8, beating the state target of 82, yet did not meet AYP in Math. Because the school did not make AYP in either subject last year also, the school is now a School In Need of Improvement (SINI), even though its scores rank it in the top ten of the state.

Members of the John Stark Regional school board discussed $158,000 in cuts made to their proposed budget in order to comply with residents’ vote to adopt a default budget for the second year in a row at their last meeting.
Previously, Principal Michael Turmelle, Business Administrator Jim Crane, and Superintendent Doug White had met to make those cuts, and they presented them to the board last Wednesday.
The group said their primary goal was to make the cuts without affecting instruction.
“I think it’s a workable budget,” commented Crane.
However, Turmelle noted it wasn’t ideal.
Major cuts were made in athletics, professional development, library books, and computer equipment. Other savings were found in worker compensation insurance, as well as anticipated savings in gas and oil.
Roughly $30,000 was cut from the athletic budget. Within those cuts was a $10,000 reduction in new equipment, which would have been used for new uniforms.
Also cut within the athletics department was two JV Cheerleading teams and two freshman reserve teams that didn’t run last year.