Restructuring for a smaller school district

BRISTOL — As the Newfound Area School Board looks ahead to the coming year, when the district will shrink from seven to four towns, members are planning to relocate the preschool program from what will become a Pasquaney School District facility to one of the elementary schools remaining in Newfound's School Administrative Unit 4 after June 30, 2025.

The restructuring committee also has discussed centralizing kindergarten registration in the SAU 4 office to provide for greater flexibility. Parents still would be able to choose which school their kindergartener would attend, but a centralized registration process would help in determining how much space would be required for kindergarten classes.

Another change under consideration is returning fifth graders to the middle school, due to space constraints associated with having more students attending the elementary schools.

When the Newfound Area School District converted its old high school into a middle school, it changed from a first through eighth (elementary and junior high) and nine through 12 (high school) class structure to a 4-4-4 (elementary-middle-high school) configuration. Complaints about the challenges of having fifth graders in a building with seventh and eighth graders, along with drainage problems that periodically flooded the lower floor where the fifth grade classrooms were located, led to the decision to return fifth graders to the elementary schools.

Now the school board is seeking the opinions of building principals and staff, along with parents, concerning the possible return of fifth graders to the middle school.

Vice Chair Kimberly Bliss, who serves on the restructuring committee, said, “I personally think we do need the input of our building-level administrators ...  because ... curriculum is important, putting supports in place, guidance counselors, allowing for certain breaks for younger kiddos, potential scheduling changes that are going to be needed. It’s a lot of work to do within one year, but I don’t think it’s impossible. But I want to be sure it’s feasible, too, for all parties involved.”

She added, “I don’t want to put an undue burden on the teachers and also for our parents. We’ve received emails from parents in the community that are concerned about moving fifth graders to the middle school, and that’s rightfully so. It’s different. It’s not what we’re used to; hasn’t been that way for 20 years, 24 years.”

The preschool program, Bliss explained, is licensed to provide special education and early intervention for 3- and 4-year-olds within the Newfound Area School District. With the towns of Bridgewater, Groton, and Hebron leaving the district on July 1, 2025, it will be necessary to move the preschool program from the Bridgewater-Hebron Village School to a Newfound elementary school. In doing so, the district will have to meet classroom requirements that include providing in-classroom bathrooms.

Bliss noted, “The majority of the kiddos that are enrolled in the early intervention program do reside within Bristol and Alexandria, Danbury, New Hampton — they live within our four towns, so it would not make any sense for us to leave the preschool program in another school district. It would be akin to putting our preschool kiddos in a Franklin elementary school. It’s a completely different entity as of July 1.”

She continued, “We need to make sure that we have everyone where they need to be, in the most appropriate place for them to be. We want to have all of our supports in place ahead of time.”

With regard to centralized kindergarten registration, Bliss said, “Say you live in Danbury, but you work in Meredith. Maybe it’s a little more convenient for your kiddo to attend New Hampton’s elementary school.” Having the central office handle those sorts of requests, she said, will “make things just a little more flexible for our parents.”

Joe Maloney, another member of the committee, added, “Our restructuring committee public comment has been very quiet, so if anybody would like to come and join us for those meetings, it might be a little bit better of an opportunity to ask and answer questions.”