Here we stand in Northwood, a little white church by the side of the road.  We will be celebrating the reopening of the First Baptist Church with a Special Service of Thanksgiving and Blessing on Sunday, October 14, at 2 pm.  All are welcome to join in this special day.  Refreshments will follow.

Community Health Fair At The Inn At Deerfield

Chesley Memorial Library Presents
“Singing The Good Old Songs Again”

CBNA Girls Track And Field Team Presents Championship Banner

The members and coaches of the Coe Brown Northwood Academy (CBNA) Girls Track and Field Team presented their Division II Championship Banner to Headmaster David Smith at a recently school assembly. The banner will hang in the Smith Hall Gymnasium next to the three banners won under former coach and CBNA faculty member Dan O’Rourke. The current coaches, CBNA faculty members Tim Cox and Brent Tkaczyk, praised the girls’ athleticism and thanked the rest of their coaching staff for their commitment to the team.

“We are fortunate to work with a talented group of athletes as well as a dedicated coaching staff,” says Tim Cox. “We would not be able to achieve this level of success without the support of our athletes and their families, our coaches and volunteers, and the Coe Brown administration. We look forward to defending our title next season!”

The Coe Brown Lady Bears emerged victorious at the Division II State Championships held in Milford in May, finishing first out of the 22 schools in the division with a score of 118. Many of the Coe Brown athletes went on to perform well at the Meet of Champions in Londonderry the following week.

“While we did lose some senior athletes this year,” says Brent Tkaczyk, “many of our top competitors are underclassmen and we look forward to working with them over the next several years.”

Coe Brown Northwood Academy (CBNA), founded in 1867, is a small co-educational public-private secondary school accepting students in grades 9-12 and offering the highest quality curriculum of studies. The academy campus is located on the shores of Harvey Lake in Northwood, New Hampshire. For more information visit www.coebrown.org.

Northwood Planning Board To Discuss Master Plan Update

At Fall Work Sessions

The Planning Board has set its fall schedule for specific discussion topics as part of its master plan update efforts.  The board will use its scheduled second Thursday work sessions for specific master plan issues discussion in addition to its review of new applications. 

Water Resources will be discussed on October 11th; Agriculture on January 10th; Transportation in February; Economic Development, Income and Employment on March 8th; and Population and Housing on April 11th.  The board has tentatively set Monday October 15 at 6:30 to continue discussion of water resources if necessary. 

The public is encouraged to attend any or all sessions to listen, provide input, and take part in the discussions. The work sessions begin at 6:15 for other matters; master plan discussions begin at 6:30.

Letter To The Editor

Performance evaluations are perhaps the most important tool management has to enhance any establishment. It is a tool that is sorely missing at some levels of our school district, poorly done at others and misunderstood by many. One of the inherent problems with performance evaluations in a unionized organization is that it has little value in their pay. Simply stated, any raise for a hardworking and conscientious employee will be enjoyed equally by the worst one. But I digress.

I’ve stated, as a School Board member, I was not given any opportunity to evaluate the Superintendent until after he resigned, effective 6/30/13. Absolutely against policy. Nor have I had the opportunity to evaluate our Principal or Vice Principal.

Fact: we don’t want to micro-manage. Ditto the Business Manager, Special Education Director, etc.

This lack of management is causing problems at several levels as I write this. If management is not able or willing to tell a person that they are good, bad or indifferent then they are misplaced. An employee needs to be told when they do good and when they are not up to par. How can they be expected to improve if they are not told where to improve. If they were even done, I would love to see the evaluation, and plan to try, of some of the people taking home 70k, 80k and much more in pay and benefits. I bet that they don’t jibe with public perception.

Take one instance. In the first grade teacher squabble, I suggested that a teacher who is not in a classroom, in a series move, fill the void. There were howls of indignation. No way can that person go back into a classroom.  100k or so with benefits. Good grief! We need change.

Tim Jandebeur
Northwood

New Hope Church

New Hope exists to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), to encourage whole-hearted love for God and to love others as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40), to be obedient to His Word as revealed in the Bible as final authority (II Timothy 3:16-17), to be actively serving the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-10), to spend time with others who love the Lord Jesus (I John 1:3), to encourage reaching those who do not know Jesus with the gospel (Acts 1:8), to encourage a renewing of the mind and not to be conformed to this world (Romans 12:1-2).

We have opportunity for others to connect with us in Northwood, Strafford, Nottingham, Epsom, Concord and Boscawen for fellowship, discipleship and service. Areas of ministry include being involved with the poor and homeless, state prison, nursing homes, schools, senior housing, Operation Christmas Child, food relief in Kenya, helping to resource fellow believers in Kenya, teen camp, various small group studies, women’s and men’s ministry, children’s ministry, coffee house and so many other opportunities to be a part of. We seek to be servants of God as first priority and live at peace with all men if possible (Romans 12:18). Pastor Ted White, along with those at New Hope, invites you to join with New Hope or another local church who desire to truly seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Please call or visit our website for more information.

Letter

A recent letter by Tom Chase critical of Bruce Hodgdon reveals a lack of understanding regarding certain basic concepts. 

First, “limited government” doesn’t mean no government. Advocates of limited government generally recognize a roll for certain “limited” governmental functions (see U.S. Constitution). As the Founders well understood, “that government which governs best governs least” (see Thomas Jefferson). Governments’ limited roll is to facilitate and protect our inherent individual rights and thereby making possible for each citizen to choose the ‘pursuit of happiness’. So for certain limited functions of government... someone from the citizenry has to be contracted to do the work.

Secondly, if Mr. Chase had “revisited” a bit more than the oft quoted excerpt from the Gettysburg Address he might have become aware that Abraham Lincoln was profoundly concerned with individual liberties as explicitly expressed by the Founders,  which he reminds all at the beginning of the address.

As for college costs, they are not skyrocketing (4-8 times the cost of living) because of minor budget cuts to U.N.H. (not “de-funding” as Mr. Chase misstated).  In fact, among several factors of the out of control costs of colleges like U.N.H. are government subsidies that push costs up (see economics 101). 

Additionally, elite educators who teach one (or if they have a ‘big load’ two courses!) a week, 6-12 hours work with a little open office time, for about half a year’s calendar time for a full professors salary. And adding insult to injury, they get assistants and grad students to grade papers... tough work if you can get it.

 Joseph McCaffrey
Northwood