| January 8th, 2010 West High idea intrigues Hooksett board HOOKSETT – School board members are expressing cautious optimism over the Manchester mayor's idea to move all Hooksett high school students to Manchester West High School. Mayor Ted Gatsas, who is meeting tonight with school officials from Hooksett, Candia and Auburn, has said since his inauguration Tuesday that putting all Hooksett students into West is a viable option. The school's population dropped significantly last fall when the town of Bedford opened its own high school. "As far as I'm concerned, anything is on the table," Hooksett School Board Chairman Paul Cournoyer said yesterday. "We're willing to listen to anything." For Hooksett to exclusively send students to West -- it currently sends half to Central High School -- the contract with Manchester would need to be amended. Hooksett officials welcome the open dialogue, something they complained had been lacking between the districts in an angrily-worded letter to former Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta in September. "I'm very pleased so far, personally, with the openness of the new mayor and the superintendent," Hooksett School Board member Jim Sullivan said. "We want to get more of a say, more of a voice and possibly a vote" on the Manchester School Board, Cournoyer said. "I'm really trusting the new regime with Ted. I think he's authentic and will treat Hooksett students like his own." After the letter to Guinta was publicized, Hooksett put Manchester even more on the hot seat to address its concerns by holding a well-attended public forum to discuss whether Hooksett should build its own high school. Becky Berk, another Hooksett School Board member, said yesterday that Hooksett officials equally want to make improvements to the problems in Manchester and examine the new high school possibility. "The sense of the board is we want to pursue a parallel track," Berk said. "We want to work with Manchester, pursue those discussions and those changes . . . and at the same time, look at what a new high school (in Hooksett) would look like." Sullivan pointed out that, even if Hooksett decided to build its own high school, it would have to make its decision by 2011 under the terms of its contract with Manchester, which is unlikely. The next opportunity Hooksett would have to pull out of Manchester would be 2018, he said. Berk, who is also the chairman of the School Administration Unit 15 School Board, which represents Hooksett, Candia and Auburn, said she hopes all towns are included in tonight's West discussion because all three towns send their high school students to Manchester. "There are three communities in SAU 15," Berk said. "I'd hate to have the entire meeting taken up by one issue . . . when you're got two other communities in the room with their own issues." In the letter sent in September, Hooksett officials accused Manchester of misusing school funds, not being pro-active to solve the population drop at West, crowding at Central, Central not meeting accreditation standards and a lack of communication, among other issues. Shortly before the letter was written, Hooksett officials said they were angry that Manchester did not inform them about adding an additional 10 minutes to the school day until about one week before classes began. - Union Leader, 1/8/10 by Dan Brown Back To News |
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Paid for by Ted Gatsas for Mayor. B. Rivard, Fiscal Agent PO Box 6655, Manchester, NH 03108 603.623.0220
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