Voters Boost School Budget to Fund Possible Lawsuit
Adam Coughlin
Nutfield News

The Town of Derry wants Governor John Lynch to know it is ready to rattle its sabers.

At the Derry Cooperative School District Deliberative Session on Saturday, residents overwhelmingly voted to add an additional $50,000 to the annual budget. The money would be set aside for the purpose of being used, if the school board sees fit, to enter into a lawsuit against the state for failure to adequately fund education.

The Deliberative Session attracted about 70 voters.

The motion to add the $50,000 for a potential lawsuit, made by Town Councilor Kevin Coyle, is a response to the state's change in educational funding formula. There has been a two-year collar on the formula, which has kept the change from occurring, but that is set to expire July 1, 2011. If it does, Derry will lose $7.5 million in educational funding, a number so devastating, according to school board chair Brenda Willis, that it could shutter an entire school. more

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Researchers Explain Findings About School Enrollment Decline
Adam Coughlin
Nutfield News

The Derry Cooperative School District recently released a demographic and enrollment projection analysis that revealed the enrollment of students in Kindergarten through grade 12 will continue to decline over the next few years. Before discussing the ramifications of such a report, the school board wanted to meet with its authors. It had that opportunity Jan. 26.

Mark Joyce and Keith Burke both have extensive backgrounds in education and work for the New Hampshire School Administrators Association, a private, non-profit organization founded in 1941 to provide support to the leadership of public education in the state. They were the lead investigators of the report and met with the school board prior to its regular meeting to answer questions.

Joyce explained that the study took place from October 2009 to Dec. 3, 2009. He said they studied the community, examining local, regional and national statistics, and talked with the town's planning officials to understand past and future development. more

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Pinkerton Academy Looks at Enrollment Possibilities
Adam Coughlin
Nutfield News

Part of the reason the Derry Cooperative School District board voted not to allow 35 students from Auburn to be admitted to Pinkerton Academy for the next school year is the board's desire to learn Pinkerton's long-term plan for diminishing enrollment. At the annual winter meeting Jan. 28, they got to hear just that. Sort of.

Harry Burnham Jr., president of the trustees of Pinkerton Academy, told representatives from the three sending towns - Derry, Chester and Hampstead - that long-range planning is something the board does constantly. He said the trustees have hired an outside consultant to do enrollment projections to see what impact the loss of students would have on the academy.

According to Burnham, a small school doesn't necessarily mean a better school. Size allows Pinkerton to offer specialty courses that appeal to a variety of interests, which would be unaffordable at a smaller school. more

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