| | Hello and welcome to School Zone, the Concord Monitor’s new weekly education newsletter. In this newsletter you can expect to see local and state news stories from the Monitor and our partner news organizations, opinion pieces from community members and content from educators and students.
This week's focus is back-to-school plans, as districts across New Hampshire are choosing the learning models they'll be using to operate in the fall. In Concord, racial justice is also a major topic of conversation, as alumni demand specific anti-racist actions from the school district.
As I continue my back-to-school coverage, I'd love to hear from readers about how your families are adapting to these new education models, and how you are choosing between in-person and remote learning.
Also, next week we're launching a weekly education page in our print newspaper, that will contain education news like this, along with contributions from local educators, so be sure to check that out on Tuesdays.
Thanks for reading!
Eileen O'Grady
Education reporter
Concord Monitor / Report for America
Contact Me:
eogrady@cmonitor.com
Twitter @eogrady27
Note: You have received the inaugural edition of School Zone as a promotion. If you would like to continue to receive the free weekly newsletter, sign up on our website. |
| Thursday was a late night for the Concord School Board. Shortly after midnight, members voted unanimously against the district's recommendations of a hybrid model, to go fully remote starting in the fall. There may be exceptions made for students who need to be in the building to learn.
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| | | | Trying to keep up with the local back-to-school plans and struggling to keep everything straight? This list summarizes how central New Hampshire school districts are planning to reopen in the fall. |
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| | | Alumni of the Concord School District are putting pressure on administrators to implement anti-racist policy measures and take a public stance on Black Lives Matter. Now, after a board meeting was cancelled due to technology issues, activists are becoming frustrated by the delay. |
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| The 17-member Commission to Study School Funding is more than halfway through its effort to reform the way New Hampshire pays for its public schools, a debate about money and property taxes that has festered in the courts, and the Legislature, for more than 25 years. Story by Laura Kiernan. |
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| | This series by the Granite State News Collaborative examines what schools learned from last spring’s experience, and how they can learn from each other to improve remote instruction going forward. Story by Hilary Niles.
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| | | Before COVID, the wifi hotspots on Rochester’s school buses were a nice-to-have item on long haul trips for athletes. In the spring, however, they became the vital connection some students needed to continue their education. Story by Emily Duggan. |
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| | | Administrators, teachers and parents identified clear trends in both challenges and solutions, especially in the benefits of small-group instruction, advantages of technology and a new twist on the perennial quest to prevent cheating. Story by Jordyn Haime. |
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| In this op-ed, Concord parent Pamela M. Walsh asks for more clarity from the school board about how the district switch between learning models as health recommendations change, and how it will implement remote learning technology for students. |
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| In this op-ed, 2018 N.H. Teacher of the Year Heidi Crumrine writes about the vital role that teachers hold in a school community, and what COVID-19 means for education going forward. |
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| In this op-ed, alumni of the Concord School District express concerns about the school board's handling of the August 3 school board meeting, where the members were slated to discuss school re-opening and the anti-racism petition. The meeting was cancelled due to technology issues. |
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| | | In this op-ed, Hopkinton School Board members urge Hopkinton residents to vote in favor of the school district operating budget on Aug. 15. This will be Hopkinton's third attempt to pass a school budget. |
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| | This newsletter was made possible through the Monitor's partnership with Report for America and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation |
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Eileen O'Grady is education reporter for the Concord Monitor. O’Grady is the former managing editor of Scope magazine at Northeastern University in Boston, where she reported on social justice issues, community activism, local politics and the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a native Vermonter and worked as a reporter covering local politics for the Shelburne News and the Citizen. Her work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, U.S. News & World Report, The Bay State Banner, and VTDigger. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in politics and French from Mount Holyoke College, where she served as news editor for the Mount Holyoke News from 2017-2018.
Advertising opportunities available in School Zone. Contact John Mattes at mattes@cmonitor.com or 369-3242. |
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