January Minutes and School in house Administrative Option

At the January Strafford Town Republican Committee Round Table we were joined by State Rep. Kurt Wuelper and Denise Rainey, Committee Person with the Strafford SAU Planning Committee.  Gilmanton chose to handle their own school administration 15 years ago and have been very happy with the results.  Other local towns that have decided to do their school administration in house are Pittsfield, Barnstead, Alton, Barrington, and Chester.  There is a constant flow of school districts requesting to bring their administration activities to be in house with the state board of education.  Strafford’s application was well received there, approved, and said to be one of the best the board has seen submitted.  In addition to dollar savings, time savings and simplicity are the common benefits of doing administration in house.  Additionally, Strafford is now routinely outvoted by Nottingham and Northwood.  So our ability to decide what is best for the Students of Strafford will be obviously better with Strafford School handling administration in house.  We also learned that Planning Committee members recently met with CBNA Headmaster Smith, Assistant Headmaster Lasky and Special Education Director Mary Susan Smith  to review the Strafford School District Withdrawal Plan and answer clarifying questions. The committee expressed the need for the community to understand the contract between the Strafford School District and CBNA does not involve the SAU #44. Headmaster Smith assured the committee that Strafford students would always be welcome at CBNA regardless of whether Strafford was part of SAU #44 or became on independent SAU.  Please consider attending the Strafford School Budget Hearing at 6:00 pm at the Strafford School Cafeteria on Wednesday 22 January 2020 and the School District Meeting in March to help with this topic.  We also discussed the amazing resiliency and flourishing of the economy of The United States of America and how our president has lead this growth.  Please join us on 2nd Wednesdays at the Hill Library from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.  See you in February after you vote on 11 February 2020.