Here’s your recap of the Monday, December 9, Board of School Committee meeting. You can find the agenda for the meeting here: https://5il.co/32gdu. Video from the meeting will be posted online by Manchester Public Television. As a reminder, we provide live updates from full board meetings at https://x.com/mansd_nh.
Smyth Road Chorus performs before meeting
Prior to Monday night's Board of School Committee meeting, Smyth Road School's amazing 3rd Grade Chorus, led by Cassie Pepler, performed a selection of holiday-themed tunes.
This was another in a continuing series of musical performances for the Board of School Committee, our last of this calendar year. Thank you to Ms. Pepler, the students and families for joining us on a snowy night – it was an awesome way to start the meeting.
You can find more photos from the performance here.
Weston students lead Pledge of Allegiance
Students from Weston Elementary School who joined us at Monday night's Board of School Committee meeting to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
Prior to the meeting, 2nd Graders Sloan and Cooper had the opportunity to meet Mayor Ruais and check out his office, too. Thank you to the students and to Principal Baskerville for coordinating.
Presentations
There are no recognitions for tonight’s meeting, so we’ll move right into presentations, of which we have two. The first is the Project Happy Platform and the second is the priority 2 recommendations for the district’s long-term facilities planning.
The Project Happy Platform is a nonprofit organization that has partnered with the state Department of Education to provide a volunteering hub for NH students. The slides for the presentation can be found starting on page 1 of the agenda packet.
There is no action needed on the Project Happy Platform as the presentation is informational. The goal would be to be up and running for Manchester’s high schools early next year, however district leadership noted that work needed to be done to ensure student data privacy before moving forward.
Next up: Priority 2 recommendations in the district’s long-term facilities planning process with Superintendent Chmiel and SMMA, the architectural/engineering firm hired to assist the district. Priority 1 included work on the four middle schools, closure of Wilson and construction of the new Beech Street school. Priority 2 is a roadmap for addressing our remaining schools.
Slides for the presentation begin on page 19 of the agenda packet. Priority 1 was approved and funded a year ago and work is underway. Tonight’s presentation is informational, and should be considered a potential road map for the next 25-30 years for district facilities. The presentation was lengthy as was feedback and questions from board members afterward. The presentation was the initial information on the priority two recommendations, and a full report – the master plan on facilities – is forthcoming.
Action agenda
There are 3 items on the action agenda. The 1st is revisions to the job description for the Exec Director of Finance, the 2nd is a review of contracts for the Superintendent, Asst Superintendents, and Exec Director of Finance; 3rd is review/evaluations & performance of the Clerk. The first item is approved, and the other two will go to nonpublic for discussion.
Consent agenda
Moving on to the consent agenda, which includes items from Teaching & Learning. The first is approval of the NH College Knowledge Inventory Survey. The survey would be administered to middle schoolers and assesses students’ knowledge of and interest in postsecondary options.
The second item is approval of Math Learning Communities, which is a state-funded math literacy program for high school students. You can find a presentation on the program starting on page 101 of the agenda packet.
The third item is approval of the 2025-2026 high school course catalog. Information on this starts on page 116 of the agenda packet with information on changes for this year’s edition, followed by the actual listings as drafted.
All three items are approved.
Superintendent’s communications
Moving on to superintendent's communications, there are a few updates, including most notably that graduation day is June 14. More from the district on that to come. Assistant Superintendent Doherty also reminds families that the last day of school before winter break is December 20, and that day is an early dismissal for elementary schools. Finally, Ms. Doherty reminds the community that musical performances are all listed on the district’s calendar -- and there are many remaining before winter break.
Adjournment
With no new business to discuss, the meeting went into non-public session before later adjourning.
The next full meeting of the board is set for January 13.