More Coffee, Please

Monday I managed to make it to a school board meeting, (as promised) which is always fun.

There was a host of good news happening. Beth Audette, one of my former teachers from way back when, received a $5000 grant for technology in the district. Not a bad way to help out students in the elementary schools. Huge kudos there.

Monadnock’s Student Government reported on some of the changes which are going on in the building, chief among them that they’re looking for ways to improve the image of the school in the community and get word out about the positive changes which have been happening. Among them, Monadnock’s Student Government will be working with the MC² Public Achievement group in order to make sure School Board meetings make it online.

A friend of mine from Antioch, Jeremy Miller¹ has been working to develop, implement, and carry out a program in the Gilsum and Troy elementary schools to provide after-school and in school programing—at this point in time, it’s providing 11 hours of additional instructional time to students in these two towns.

It’s also being accredited with 21st Century Schools, which is a major feather in the cap.

The nice thing about this program is that it helps every kid, but most especially those from lower incomes (in fact, to qualify for the grant, 30% of students need to be having free or reduced lunch). The best thing we can do for student success is to get and keep them involved in school, and provide as much contact as we can with adults and solid role models.

Looks like it’s making good things happen in Troy and Gilsum. I wonder what it would take to expand to Swanzey, Sullivan, and Fitzwilliam?

This Monday and Wednesday, MRHS and MC² linked up to listen to, and then visit and work with, Hans Schepker, a local artist and mathematician.

It was a fascinating discussion, and even more fascinating to watch the students apply what they were learning. It’s a far better way of learning math than the textbooks I remember (and I remember the textbooks, not the math…) and it was clear the students were fascinated, intrigued, and learning.²

All good things.

I was amused at the School Board meeting about the discussion regarding how items make it on the agenda. Mr. Carne and some others think it vital that any board member, at any time, be able to put anything on the agenda.

I suppose. Still, isn’t it usual for groups to vote on what items are put on the agenda? Otherwise it would be far too easy for frivolous matters to consume time better spent on other things.

Ah well. Just wondering aloud.

So now that the elections are over, I feel like I can talk about the results of the mock election held at MRHS.

Obama won, by a landslide. But who cares, right?

I thought the results of the survey the students took was much more interesting.

1 I’m reasonably certain I have his last name correct, but could be wrong. If so, forgive me. ↺

2 I especially liked the discussion about Plato and the theory of forms. Good stuff, and even more pleasing was that a good chunk of the students knew what he was talking about. Who said the classics were dead? ↺

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Monadnock Community Connections School, Monadnock Regional School District, School Board, School Funding

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