Afternoons or evenings…the choice is yours! The
Northwood/Nottingham Evening Book Discussion Group will meet at
the Blaisdell Memorial Library in Nottingham on Wednesday,
January 26, at 7:00 p.m. to discuss “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers.
The Afternoon Book Discussion Group will meet at the Chesley
Memorial Library on Thursday, February 3rd, to discuss “House of
Abraham” by Stephen Berry. New members are welcome in both
groups. Call the library at 942-5472 for more information.
Join the fun at the Chesley Memorial Library’s Lapsit
and Story Time programs! Lapsit Story Times are held on
Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. for children eighteen months through
three years of age; Story Times are held on Thursdays at 10:00
a.m. for children three through five years of age.
Registration required. Call Lynne at 942-5472 for more
information.
Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Alumni
Association
Our next CBNA Alumni meeting will be held this
Thursday, January 20 at 6:30 pm. The meetings are held in the
guidance conference area in the main lobby at Coe-Brown. Any
Alumni are welcome to join our meetings. It would be great to
see new faces and get new ideas. Hope to see you there!
Northwood Teachers’ Response To Negotiations
The
Negotiating process between the Northwood Teachers’ Association
and the Northwood School Board had consisted of 5 meetings,
three of which were for the purpose of exchanging proposals.
The last two meetings were the times when the negotiating
took place. The Northwood School Board offered $1,000 per
cell on the salary schedule for the first year, and 0 on the
salary schedule for the second year. They proposed an
additional 15 minutes of instructional time, and an increase of
5% contribution to the health insurance premiums. That
proposal would have resulted in a monetary loss for all
teachers.
The Northwood Teachers’ Association proposed
a $7,000 increase to illustrate the fact that a Northwood
teacher’s starting salary is $7,615 lower than a Coe-Brown
teacher’s, and a Northwood teacher’s salary with 14 years
experience and a Master’s Degree is $8,294 less than a Coe-Brown
teacher’s salary.
Coe-Brown teachers’ salaries
increased by 2% in 2010-2011 and 5% in 2009-2010.
Northwood teachers salaries’ were frozen in 2010-2011 and
2009-2010. Northwood School and Coe-Brown Northwood
Academy are both taxpayer-funded schools.
The starting
salary for Northwood teachers is ranked 144 out of 160 school
districts in New Hampshire. Coe-Brown is ranked 28.
Strafford School is ranked 49, and Nottingham School is ranked
122. This information is contained on the New Hampshire
Department of Education website.
The Mediation on January 5,
2011 failed because the Northwood School Board’s final proposal
would have reduced the take home pay for 16% of the teaching
staff.
Northwood Teachers make Northwood
School a great public school! Northwood School won the
Edie’s Excellence in Education Award for the best K-8 school in
New Hampshire in 2009. We have been a Blue Ribbon School,
an award from the US Department Of Education, for several years
because of the countless hours dedicated to our school by
volunteers.
Teachers participate in seventeen
committees devoting hours outside the classroom to benefit our
students and to move the school forward. Teachers actively
support after school activities by facilitating clubs and
coaching sports.
The Northwood Teachers’ Association
NEA-NH provide charitable contributions such as turkeys or gift
cards to the Northwood Food Pantry as well as gift cards to the
Northwood Fire Department’s “Santa’ Helpers” program. We
give a yearly scholarship to a senior graduating from Coe-Brown
and a savings bond to a graduating 8th grade student. Each
year, teachers spend thousands of their own money to supply
their classrooms and ensure that no student who attends school
is hungry or lacks needed school supplies.
The Northwood
Teachers wanted to express their point of view, and we hope, as
a community, that you will support your teachers and urge the
Northwood School Board to give a fair proposal to the teachers
of Northwood School. Thank you.
The Northwood Teachers’
Association
Help For Those Facing Foreclosure
Submitted By Harriet Cady,
Deerfield
I read about this program in Keene and called NH
Banking Department. I was told their website has a listing
for programs once a month in Concord and two Tuesdays a month in
Manchester to give help to those facing foreclosure, put on
through the NH Banking Dept. I hope by putting this
information in locally it will help the people who have asked me
where to go.
Making Home Affordable program, the NH Mediation
program, short sales, and other options are topics that will be
discussed. Speakers will also discuss the foreclosure
timeline, mortgage rescue scams, and deficiency judgments.
The seminar is free but reservations are required. Please
call the Department at 271-3561 for more information or go to
http://homehelpnh.org/ .
Hope this helps.
Northwood Recreation Update
On
Saturday, February 5th, the Northwood Recreation will hold its
4th Annual Ice Fishing Derby. The Derby will be held on
Harvey Lake from 8:00 am to noon. Children do not need a
fishing license. Adults are welcome to fish, but must be
licensed to fish in the State of New Hampshire. Prizes
will be given to children 16 and under in a categories including
shortest fish and longest fish. Please bring your ice
fishing gear.
If you are not an avid ice fisherman, the
Recreation Department will be providing some tip-ups and bait
for those who would like to try something new. This is a
FREE event. There will also be some concessions (hot dogs,
hot beverages, and juice) for sale. Parking is available
at the Northwood Congregational Church.
Registration in
advance is requested, but not required. The event will be
held rain or shine, safe ice permitting. Contact the Northwood
Recreation Department at 942-5586 x209 or by e-mail at
[email protected] for additional information.
Coe-Brown Energy Conservation Project
Coe-Brown Northwood
Academy has recently embarked on a project that will help to
reduce its energy costs and increase energy use efficiency
throughout its campus. Using a Public Service Company of NH
Small Business Energy Solutions grant of $7600 to pay half of
the retrofit cost, Coe-Brown has replaced lights in the Gerrish
Gym, the Smith Hall Gym and the Smith Hall lobby with high
energy efficient fluorescent fixtures. The predicted
energy savings is 35,000 kilowatt hours per year with a
predicted savings of $4000, and a two year payback for CBNA’s
investment.
The work was done by PSNH subcontractor
Lighting Retrofit Services of Wilmington MA, who also
coordinated the project. Not only does this project result
in substantial energy savings, but has also resulted in
substantial improvement of lighting brightness in all areas.
This is the second time that CBNA has taken advantage of a
PSNH grant to improve energy use. Eight years ago the
school used a PSNH grant to update fluorescent lighting in all
classrooms and public areas in the five Academy classroom
buildings, which has resulted in significant energy savings
through the years. The PSNH Small Business Energy
Solutions Program is available to business and municipal
customers with demand of fewer than 100 KW.
Projects
are funded through the Systems Benefit Charge, which is a small
fee on each customer’s electric bill. The program pays up
to 50% of installed projects’ costs, as long as each project
passes a benefit/cost test. Because of these opportunities, CBNA
looks forward to a lighter, brighter more energy efficient
future.
Letter To The Editor
“In too many American schools, current laws,
policies, and practices put adult interests ahead of
students. The result is an increasingly broken
system.....”. And. “We must re-dedicate our
collective attention to putting in place state and
district level policies that put students at the
center of every decision we make in education.”
I found both
those statements on the
www.studentsfirst.org website. I beg each and every parent
out there to visit this website. I have three children who have
gone through Northwood School. Many of you have heard me say
that Northwood School should be the poster child for the fact
that money, or lack thereof, is not the problem with education.
We spend more per student than either Strafford or Nottingham
and produce an inferior product.
More to the point, “We” are
not preparing our kids adequately for Coe-Brown. I believe and
hope that the incredibly powerful destructive force of teachers
unions is at its apex and that power, that I want, I want, I
want and I want someone else to pay for it, is over. To all of
you Northwood School teachers, many that I know personally, your
incredible grab for undeserved greed should be rewarded with
nothing! That will be my vote.
Tim Jandebeur
Time To Sign Up For Elected Positions
If you have an interest
to serve the Town of Northwood or the Northwood School District
as an elected official on any of the many boards and committees,
it is time to sign up for the March election. Any legal
resident of the town may sign up to be on the town/school
ballot. The position of police commissioner does require a
person to have residency in the town for the three years
immediately preceding the date of the election.
Although
personal knowledge and/or experience may benefit any position,
there are no requirements for any particular position other than
a willingness to serve. The filing period for town and school
elected positions for the Town of Northwood will run from
Wednesday, January 19, 2011 to Friday, January 28, 2011 until
5:00 PM.
Filings for town positions may be made with Town
Clerk/Tax Collector Judy Pease during normal business hours, and
for the school positions with School Clerk Penny Hampl (call
234-8609 for an appointment). A list of open positions is
available on the town website:
www.northwoodnh.org and
is posted at town hall.