SAU#75 Superintendent Newsletter

Dear Grantham School Community,

We are a little more than two weeks into the start of the 2025-2026 school year. I want to thank our staff, administrators, custodians, bus drivers, cafe services, students, families, and community members for a smooth transition. One of my favorite pictures from the first few days was of Principal Reed who took her rolling table to the hallways to visit classrooms and check out the great community building activities that staff prepared and used to welcome all students back to Grantham Village School. It took a village to open our school year and this is just one example of the passion and dedication we are so fortunate to have in our school community. This is going to be an exciting year! As always, please do not hesitate to reach out by calling, emailing, or stopping by the SAU offices. I look forward to getting to know the Grantham Community!

Sincerely,

Christine Downing

I am pleased to share a welcome back to school letter from our new Commissioner of Education, Ms. Caitlin Davis. Our most valuable assets in our NH public schools are the educators and staff who commit each and every day to supporting our students. They are the foundation of our village!

On September 4, 2025, one day before all public schools in NH had been directed to complete compliance reports related to DEI prohibitions included in HB#2, a court judge ordered a temporary restraining order (TRO) until September 18, 2025.

Here is a link to the court document.

Our legal counsel has provided this summary in terms of how this TRO applies to other school districts in the state:

• Subsection (a) covers the four school districts and all NEA-NH school districts.
• Subsection (a) covers non-NEA-NH school districts that may contract, employ, or work with NEA-NH, the four plaintiff districts, or the individual plaintiffs.
• Subsection (b) covers non-NEA-NH schools only to the extent they provide disability services to students of the four plaintiff districts.

We hope to receive a more permanent ruling before that date.

NH Department of Education has posted they will comply with the court ruling.

Here is a link to a press release from NH ACLU.

Please reach out with any questions. I can be reached at cdowning@gvshawks.org. I will continue to provide updates through Superintendent newsletters.

At the August 12th board meeting, our Facility Director, Rodney Page, provided detailed updates on all the great work and effort our team completed from mid-June through the end of August. Thank you to our custodians William Stokes and Heather Lucas for their tireless efforts and determination in getting our school ready for a new year!

You can find the slides for this board presentation using this link.

We have been experiencing driver challenges in terms of our bus and van routes. Typically, we have three full-time bus drivers and one van driver. Currently, we only have two bus drivers. This has led to the consolidation of three routes to two routes for the past week. It also means our drivers are completing double runs in terms of transporting students to Lebanon and then completing routes for GVS. This situation is likely to continue into the next couple of weeks. We recognize the challenges this can create for families and appreciate your patience as we work through this situation and develop long-term plans with our contractor, First Student Transportation. In the interim, if you are or anyone you know is interested in driving a bus or van, please contact me at cdowning@gvshawks.org and we can work to get you connected to First Student representatives to explore employment opportunities.

We are always seeking substitutes in terms of supporting classrooms when our teaching staff are absent. In addition, we are seeking special substitutes in the areas of paraprofessional support, custodial services, and van driver. We are looking for people who are willing to back up these positions when our current employees are on leave or absent. Typically, these positions pay a per diem rate. If you are interested in substituting in one of these three special areas, please reach out to Brenda Molloy at bmolloy@sau75.org. You can also find more information at this address: https://www.gvshawks.org/apps/jobs/

Throughout the summer a team of administrators and our preschool teacher, Ms. Erin Ames, have been developing a proposal to upgrade our early learning playground at the north end of the building. At the Aug 12th board meeting, this proposal was shared. We have been working with the Burkehaven Foundation, who has provided a generous initial $25,000 donation, with possibilities for another $50,000 donation. The Grantham School Board also allocated $30,000 from the fiscal year 2025 fund balance for this project. We are continuing to seek additional donations and conducting fundraising efforts to raise another $20,000 to reach the goal of $125,000. The purpose of this project is to create an early learning playground that is available to our preschool and kindergarten students, and supports accessibility for all students. We have conducted a bidding process and are in the process of selecting a vendor to work with regarding this project.

We have applied for a NHED Robotics Education Development Grant with the hopes of starting an educational drone program at GVS. We collaborated with our neighbors at Kearsarge Regional Middle School to see if we can establish a drone program and team to attend competitions. If we are successful in getting the grant, then I will be looking for family and/or community volunteers to help with these efforts. If you are interested, please email me at cdowning@gvshawks.org. Keep your fingers crossed!

Most are aware that Governor Ayotte signed into law a "bell to bell ban on cell phones in schools." The Grantham School Board has entered Policy JICJ - Unauthorized Communication Devices" into first reading. Here is a link to that policy. Part of the law requires the opportunity for employees, families, students, and community members to provide feedback on the policy. The board hopes to bring the policy for 2nd reading and adoption to its October 7, 2025, meeting. If you are interested in providing feedback on the proposed policy, please complete this form. Collection of feedback will end on October 1, 2025.

Two upcoming topics for our school district will include the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools and open enrollment.

Regarding AI, our Technology Director, Randy Britton, has suggested these resources as we begin our conversations at an administrative level.

AI Code of Ethics

Use of AI Technologies

We will certainly be extending this AI conversation to other key stakeholders throughout the upcoming school year.

Statewide Open Enrollment in Public Schools garnered attention during the 2025 legislative session. In general, NH RSA 194-D has existed in the state since about 2009. This law provides any local community with a pathway to approve through its voting body the option to become an "open enrollment school or program," which is defined as "any public school which, in addition to providing educational services to pupils residing within its attendance area or district, chooses to accept pupils from other attendance areas within its district and from outside its district." There are some questions regarding how this law works in alignment or conflicts with existing tuition or attendance area agreements. Grantham School District does participate in a regional attendance area agreement with Lebanon for grades 7-12. We will continue to monitor this situation to study any potential impacts on the Grantham school community in the future.