CENTER HARBOR — The consensus seems clear that, for some students, attending pre-school and full-day kindergarten can put them in a position to succeed when they begin first grade. If that's true, should Inter-Lakes School District consider offering those services to all young children in the district?
The topic was discussed on Tuesday night at a "round table" discussion hosted by the Inter-Lakes School Board. Instead of being held in the Humiston Building in Meredith — the board's usual meeting location — the meeting was held in the Center Harbor Town Hall, in keeping with the board's new plan to hold its second meeting of the month in locations more convenient for constituents who do not live in Meredith. The board is expected to soon hold such a meeting in Sandwich.
Prior to the regular business of the board meeting, an hour was allocated to facilitate a discussion among those present.
Mark Billings, a Meredith resident, asked those present to respond to a recent report about the Head Start program, a federal initiative which seeks to prepare low-income children for kindergarten. A recent report suggested that taxpayers weren't getting a return on their investment.
Inter-Lakes, he was told, offers a pre-school program for students who are identified as having yet to achieve basic skills they'll need to start kindergarten. As a "reverse mainstream" program, the pre-school also includes an equal number of students, selected through a lottery system, who are on-track for kindergarten success. Come kindergarten, most students have access to only a half-day program, while students who are still behind can attend a full-day kindergarten class.
Students who enter first grade with a skills deficit run the risk of remaining behind their peers for years. However, if a student can be brought up to speed early in her educational career, research strongly suggests, she is less likely to require extensive special education services year after year.
"The sooner you deal with these skills gaps, the less time you will spend late on in compensatory teaching... kids are natural learners," said board member Howard Cunningham.
Karen Sticht, a resident of Meredith, suggested that such early-intervention programs could also benefit students who are academically proficient but have yet to learn the social and behavioral rules of school. Dana Chase, a parent who works in the Laconia School District, said she had seen first-hand the results of full-day kindergarten while at work and asked the board why such a program wasn't a priority in Inter-Lakes.
The interest in such services has become heightened due to changes in society. While most of the adults in the meeting room had been raised in a household where one parent was able to stay home, they recognized that very few of the district's present students were so fortunate. "It's a different setting than it was in the 1960s," said board member Lisa Merrill.
While no board members argued against expanding access to full-day kindergarten, finding the resources to fund the program's expansion might not be such an easy sell. The discussion occurred during the board's yearly budgeting process, and as in most years, the board was juggling the triple concerns of protecting quality of education, absorbing increasing costs passed down from state cuts, and avoiding onerous pressure on taxpayers.
"We do get worried about funding," said board member John Martin. "But the programs and kids drive what we put into the budget," he said, adding that the district's member communities might reach into their pocketbooks if the board and administrators make the case that it's necessary. "Our communities have been outstanding about supporting the educational needs of our kids."
Mary Ellen Ormond said, "What we want to do is provide the services that we can, but we need to be mindful of what the communities can support."
"The all-day kindergarten program is one we're struggling with right now," Ormond added.
Richard Hanson, board chair, said, "The evidence is out there, there is no doubt that money invested into early education repays itself."
Other topics touched on during the discussion included extending the school year and establishing a mentoring program. At future round table discussions, the board planned to discuss school safety.
The Inter-Lakes School Board will hold a public hearing on its proposed 2013-2014 budget at 6:30 p.m. on Feburary 6 in the Inter-Lakes Community Auditorium. The next regular board meeting will be held on Feburary 12.

LACONIA — Sheriff Craig Wiggin this week received approval from the Belknap County Commission to apply for a $300,000 Homeland Security grant for a microwave communications system which he says can be completely installed by the end of the summer.
''It's a state-of-the art system which will meet standards for 95 percent coverage from anywhere in the county,'' Wiggin told commissioners Wednesday morning, when he presented the proposal.
He said that it is an ideal system for the county with simulcast capability and can use the existing tower on Mt. Belknap and would be capable of being used as simultaneously by the Lakes Region Mutual Aid system in the event of an emergency in which their system went down.
He said that there would be no additional cost to the county to acquire and set up the system.
''There's no hard or soft match in the contract. We have to agree to maintain the infrastructure as part of our system,'' said Wiggin.
Commissioners agreed to write a letter of support for the grant, as have local police departments who would benefit from the enhanced capabilities for their own dispatch systems.
Questioned as to whether or not the department would still need a proposed $60,000 capital project for upgrading the current dispatch system, Wiggin said he hoped that would still go forward as it would provide a backup in the case of an emergency.
He said that many of the problems with dead spots in the current system have been solved by the installation of a new tower on Pinnacle Hill Road in New Hampton, which augments two other tower sites, on Belknap Mountain in Gilford and Prospect Mountain in Alton.
Wiggin also said that the current system's base radio system is in bad shape and the main console is blowing three fuses a day, which compromises its effectiveness.
Commissioner Steven Nedeau asked if the change to a microwave system would affect the towns at all and Wiggin said that the only change would be reprogramming their radios.
The sheriff said he expected to know by the end of February whether or not the grant has been approved.

GILFORD — When selectmen voted on Wednesday to ask FairPoint Communications to remove its payphone at the Glendale docks, they did it because it was costing the town $83 month and officials felt it was no longer needed.
But once the Glendale payphone is gone, will Gilford join the ever-growing ranks of American towns that no longer have a payphone?
The Daily Sun went looking for payphones in Gilford, starting in the places one could expect to find one — the movie theater, gas stations and shopping areas.
The WalMart plaza has some holes in a wall outside the vestibule that look like, at one point in time, there was a payphone. The Gilford Cinemas have the vestiges of what was once a pay phone right down to the kiosk and an empty black phone book holder handing from its chain.
There is an empty blue phone booth protected by two yellow concrete pillars at the Airport Country Store and Deli but the booth is gutted. Even the old payphone outside in the woods outside the Big Apple on the corner of County Club Road is gone.
Norman Soucy of the Gilford Village Store has a story behind the demise of his payphone. Initially, Soucy began, the Pepsi truck hit it. He said the phone belonged to a private company, he didn't remember the name, and they came to fix it.
Just after it was fixed, said Soucy, "a plow truck hit it. Took it clean of the building."
He said he picked it up, put it in his back room and called the company. Soucy said he called a number of times and after a few weeks gave up on them. He said it was about two years later when "some guy" came into the store and was looking for his pay phone.
Soucy said he told him it was in the back and asked him why his company never returned his phone calls. He said the guy looked at him and said, "Well we're not very good at answering the phone."
"He left and I never saw him or the payphone again," Soucy said.
He said he didn't pay for the phone and wasn't getting any revenue from it. "It was really a pain," he said. "The kids would throw gum on it, really trash it."
Ray Lakeman knows a lot about payphones. A Belknap County Sheriff Departmant deputy who works security at the Superior Courthouse, Lakeman retired from Verizon and was once the security manager for the three northern New England states' payphones.
He said there were about 15,000 payphones in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont when he retired in 1992.
"Just last week they came and took the one out of this building," he said, noting it was a private company because FairPoint sold its payphone business.
In May of 2012, Fairpoint sold it Northern New England payphones to Pacific Telemanagement Services. In their media release, FairPoint said at the time it had about 4,000 phones in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
At one point, Lakeman said it was a major source of income for the phone companies and he managed the crews that collected the coins. He said each box could hold up to $200 and part of his job was timing the collections so the money was picked up at the right time.
"If it got full it went out of service. If there wasn't enough money, it wasn't profitable to collect it," he said.
The collections were taken daily by armored cars to Boston where it was processed by the Boston Federal Reserve Bank. He said every day, he reported the projected income to Verizon whose accountants factored the income into daily cash management.
"It was a good business for the phone companies before cell phones.
Wakeman has a payphone at this home. He was given a chrome-plated one by the company for his retirement. He said it is hooked up and his grandchildren "get a real kick" out of using it.
But is the Glendale payphone the last one in Gilford?
It is not. There is a payphone at Gunstock Mountain Resort in the main lodge just across from the Powder Keg.
Sales and Marketing Director Bill Quigley said it's in a blue box with a bright yellow handle and "must be very important."
When told he just may have the last payphone in Gilford, Quigley laughed aloud. "Maybe we'll use it in an advertising brochure or something," he said.