Tell the School Board not to move the Next Charter School into West Running Brook 8th Grade Pod.

We recognize that the School Board does a great job of looking out for our children.  In this case, however, a critical decision with long-lasting impact was made without an appropriate level of analysis, communication, and the opportunity for engagement by stakeholders.

The Derry School Board voted on July 18th to move the Next Charter High School to West Running Brook (video posted at the School District site).  This decision was made against the recommendation of Superintendent Laura Nelson who advised that DEEP (Derry Early Education Program) should remain at Grinnell pending a report due October 2014.  The decision was made without adequate notice (identified only as "DEEP Space Needs Report" on the meeting agenda) or the opportunity for engagement into the process by stakeholders (parents, students, teachers, administration, taxpayers).  Further, because the meeting on the 18th had been moved due to weather, local papers did not publish this information until last Thursday (July 31).  This move was ill advised, and we ask that the Board repeal this decision for reasons including the following:

1. The Board's responsibility is to represent all school stakeholders.  In this case, those most impacted by this issue and the Board's decision were not made aware of Board deliberations in advance, when doing so given available technology would have been easy, and likely would have averted the decision.  

2. The alleged need for space for DEEP beyond available capacity at Grinnell appears to have been misrepresented and has not yet been confirmed.  At a Q&A session held yesterday (August 8), an Adminstration Report on DEEP indicated that excess capacity still exists, and while the space at Grinnell may be suboptimal, given the proposed changes, the recommendation from the School Administration was for DEEP to remain at Grinnell, and Next to stay at Hood pending the October report.  

3.  Obtaining a quality Middle School education is challenging enough without the adverse impact of breaking the implied commitment with our students, teachers, and parents that each grade will have two pods as the school was designed.  How do you tell half of the 8th grade that they will be treated less equally?  Further, some common areas will be crowded and many rooms will not be used as intended (e.g. classrooms without windows, art room used for science, floating teachers, etc).  The school was not designed to include high school students, especially given the open mezzanine layout between levels, and despite the best efforts of staff the potential for an adverse influence of older students on middle school exists (prior to and afterschool, in common areas; cafeteria, bathrooms, sports/school events, etc.).  While the school is currently at ~76% of capacity (570 students vs. max. of 750); the layout is designed into six pods and "extra space" can not easily be carved out for alternate use.

4. The legal commitment from the School District to the Next Charter School appears to have been misrepresented.  It appears as though there is no legally binding contract, only a Memorandum of Understanding (providing space for 5 years at $1/year).  The lease for this year has not been signed.

5. Several Board members are also Trustees for the Next School and should have recused themselves from both the discussion and vote on this issue due to their conflict of interest.

6.  It does not appear as though there was an effort to engage a Working Group to evaluate other options for the Next School.  Potential options in the community worth evaluating might include space at Pinkerton, Calvary Christian, Boys & Girls Club, several town owned buildings, and others.

Please sign this petition and attend the School Board meeting on Tuesday, August 12, at 7pm at West Running Brook.  Please pass this along...