Residents push back against reducing Newfound nursing staff

BRISTOL — Faced with months of criticism from citizens who have voiced opposition to the Newfound Area School District’s emphasis on social and emotional learning, the school board heard from a different set of residents on Jan. 22, who voiced support for the broader approach to education.

Reacting to Alexandria resident Marie Carson’s suggestion the district reduce the number of nurses, counselors and psychologists it employs in order to preserve seven teaching positions set to be eliminated at the elementary, middle and high school levels, the speakers argued the focus on physical and mental health is just as necessary to ensure that students achieve their “greatest potential.”

Sarah Cutting of Alexandria, who teaches high school English, cited Newfound’s stated values of discovery, growth, independence, perseverance and respect, asking, “How do we foster our students to embody these chosen core values without acknowledging that all of these are social-emotional concepts?

"Management, responsible decision-making, social awareness and emotional intelligence, all of those are core values that we have already adopted.”

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning says SEL is “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships and make responsible and caring decisions.” It is considered a key element of global citizenship.

Bristol Rep. John Sellers objects to the term “global citizen” because, as he sees it, “We are not global citizens. ... A citizen, the definition: a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it. So, again, the allegiance is to the United States of America, the allegiance here is to New Hampshire.”

Mika Austin, the student representative to the school board, countered, “Global citizenship is a term used to describe social, environmental and economic actions that individuals take in communities who recognize that every person is a citizen of the world. ... being a good citizen includes respecting the rights and cultures of others, advocating for social justice and equality, and taking action to protect the environment and promote sustainability. To be a good citizen and practice civility, you can be more patriotic by giving back to the community and being a productive member of society. Good global citizens have care and compassion for others.”

Brenda Sullivan of Alexandria said her son would not have survived elementary school without a school nurse being there to administer medications, including insulin injections.

“She had to give him injections every time he ate in third grade, help him count his carbs so he would know how much insulin to get so that [he’s] not overdoing. That was also part of the social-emotional learning for him, going in third grade out to the playground and being called an alien and disabled child and not being allowed to play. He went to the school nurse for emotional backup. She helped him grow, to be able to communicate with others, to be able to talk and teach about his disease ... if there wasn’t a school nurse in the building ... he would be dead.”

She concluded by saying her son is “only one child out of hundreds that could use those medical nurses on hand.”

Janelle Guiod of Danbury, an advance practice registered nurse at Mid-State Health, said as a local practitioner she believes school nurses are essential. They can let her know about socio-economic issues, learning disabilities and food insecurity at home.

“Those kids don’t have the voice, and that’s where the school nurse can connect with the provider in an office and really give us that information to then work with the families,” Guiod said. “I think that in my 30- or 45-minute visit with the family, I can’t do all of that education, so that’s where I think a lot of the school nurses come into play. There’s a lot of kids that probably don’t even go to an office to have a physical or anything, so I think eliminating that from the younger community would be a huge deficit to everyone.”

Speaking on the other side of the issue was Aubrey Freedman of Bridgewater. “I’ve been saying for a long time, we’re turning our schools into hospitals. OK, I’ve probably been exaggerating a little bit, I thought, but, actually, there is a new bill out, Senate Bill 343 ... and it’s actually to bring full-fledged health care centers to the schools. ... They have four schools in the state that already have full-fledged health care centers there, so I really wasn’t exaggerating that much. I thought I was.”

He said schools are trying to do too much. “We need to get back to the basics, and the doctors’ office, the hospitals, let them do all that stuff. Let’s just concentrate on academic basics.”

SB 343 as proposed would allow school districts to contract with a health care provider, health system or community partner to establish a school-based health center to provide services beyond the scope of school nursing services. It would be a health clinic in or near a school or school facility, providing primary health services, but not replacing the role of school nurses.

The bill would require that student participation in the services be voluntary and that there be no incentives to entice students to participate. Students who are of age or the student’s parent or guardian if the student is a minor would have to provide written, informed consent before the student could receive services. Parents of minors would have to be present when the student receives services.

An email comment from Brenda Joyce of Alexandria was read into the record, saying medical and emotional decisions should be left to parents. She reminded the school board, “many of us tried to tell you that the COVID vaccines were not safe,” and she referred to a website that cited the bill passed in Maricopa County, Arizona, banning all COVID vaccines “because not only are they not safe, but they refer to them as bio weapons pushed by our own government.”

The comments were passionate but respectful until Rick Alpers of Bristol personally attacked those questioning the district’s focus on social and emotional health, saying, “Let’s not let a vocal minority that has a real lack of reality drive our conversations here as a district.”

School board member Nate Saler of New Hampton also denigrated those who raised concerns about a loss of focus on “the basics” by saying, “There’s a few voices that have dominated this discussion, which I do not think is fair.”

The school board declined to act upon a request to restore the second public comment period at the end of the meeting which was dropped to keep the meetings shorter.

Freedman said, “I remember when we had the second public comment period, and I thought it was very helpful because sometimes things pop up during the meeting, we’ve already spoken, then you have to wait 'til the next meeting. It’s better to have that second period to make a few comments, and I think it would be helpful to the board.”

He added, “I know you guys put in long hours and everything, but it’s actually not that many people that really speak during public comment ... so if you actually have a second period, I don’t think it really adds that many extra minutes.”

School board member Britta Matthews of Groton spoke against restoring the lost comment period, saying the public has the option of emailing comments to be read into the minutes.