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This week's stories: (click on the headline
to jump to story)
 New
principal chosen at GAHS
Twins'
walk for breast cancer is a personal journey
Town's
students have a 'green' vision
Schools'
emergency response now plans for the big chill
Police
meetings are hush-hush
Goffstown
New principal
chosen at GAHS
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By RUSS CHOMA
Staff Writer
rchoma@yourneighborhoodnews.com
When members of a selection committee went
looking for a new principal for Goffstown AREA High School, they
cast a wide net.
Then slowly, but surely, they drew it back in.
Out of 19 candidates, six were interviewed and three were studied
closer by the superintendent and school board members. This
closer study involved background checks, in-depth interviews
and school visits.
And when it came down to it, during the school visit for the
winning candidate, it became obvious to the search committee
that the person they were looking for was right in front of them.
Frank McBride, who has been serving as
interim principal ever since Mark Roth's departure, has been
tapped as the new principal at GAHS.
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CHATTING IT UP: Frank McBride,
soon to be the new permanent principal at GAHS, strikes up a
conversation with Matthew Luby, a senior at the school. (Russ
Choma Photo)
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"I can't really describe it in words," said School Board
Chairman Scott Gross. "But you get a very good feeling when
you walk through the halls. And I think it's because of his leadership."
Despite looking far and wide, the school with the greatest "sense
of energy" was GAHS, and the man providing that leadership
was McBride.
Gross and the other school board members unanimously voted to
offer McBride the position during their April 9 board meeting.
"You've done a great job as the interim, and I'm sure you'll
do a great job as the principal," Gross told McBride
after the vote.
McBride has been filling the slot since the end of January when
Roth announced his resignation.
Matt Luby, a GAHS senior and student representative to the school
board, said the fact that McBride knows the school and the students
is a major plus.
"I think (the choice) was good," he said. "He
probably knows the school better than anyone else. Having a new
guy come in probably would have been rough."
McBride is anything but the new guy.
Although the 35-year old Goffstown native won't officially begin
as principal until this summer, his experience in the district
dates back to his childhood.
After attending Goffstown schools through middle school, he attended
Trinity High School in Manchester. He went on to graduate from
Saint Anselm College.
McBride returned to Goff-stown and has worked in the district
for the past 11 years in a variety of positions, including coach,
athletic director, administrator and five years as a teacher.
Until his elevation to interim principal, McBride served as the
assistant principal.
McBride said that his predecessor ran the school with an even
hand, adding that he wants to keep the school going on a steady
and positive path.
"Really, things are going well right now," he
said. "So we'll keep going with the way that has already
been established."
McBride said over the past several years the administration focused
on developing a sense of regard, respect and academic rigor.
The first two have been achieved, he said, and now he wants the
focus on establishing rigor as a standard at GAHS.
"We want to improve the quality of instruction for every
class and for every kid," McBride said. "And we
have a very, very capable staff to do that."
SAU 19 Superintendent Darrell Lockwood said Mc-Bride
has a "strong track record as a New Hampshire teacher
and administrator" and said his chief strengths included
an ability to communicate with both staff and students.
According to Lockwood, the board set the salary for the principal's
position at $85,000 a year. The position officially begins on
July 1, and the board hopes to officially offer McBride a contract
in the near future.
Gross said now that McBride is in place, a search for his replacement
for the assistant principal position can begin. The school board
is also looking to fill the newly created dean of students position.
Gross said he hopes both positions will be filled in the next
few months.
Dunbarton
Twins' walk
for breast cancer is a personal journey
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By LARA SKINNER
Staff Writer
lskinner@yourneighborhoodnews.com
DUNBARTON Fundrais-ing is one of
the tougher parts of working on a charitable event.
After friends and family have donated, many people will start
calling local businesses. And 18-year-old Jess Modzeleski found
that tough to do.
"I just would feel like a nuisance," she said.
Jess registered herself and her twin sister, Jen, to walk in
the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Boston after seeing an advertisement
for the event in Self magazine.
To qualify for the walk, each woman has to raise $1,800 before
the walk on May 15 and 16. If they can meet their goals, they
will be the youngest women to walk for the fundraiser.
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NO HORSING AROUND: When
18-year-old Jess Modzeleski (right) isn't taking care of her
horses this spring, she'll be walking along the roads of Dunbarton
to train with her twin sister, Jen, to walk in the Avon Walk
for Breast Cancer in Boston in May. (Lara Skinner Photo)
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When the sisters went to a meeting to find out more about the
Avon Foundation and the event, Jess said people were shocked
to see them because of how young they are.
"When we walked in the people were, like, 'wow,'" she
said.
It's not the first time Jess and Jen have participated in a fundraiser
or an athletic event, for that matter.
Last summer, Jen ran a marathon for Cigna HealthCare and she
finished a YMCA-sponsored tri-athalon at Clough State Park.
Both women participated in the Danskin Women's Triathalon Series,
too. It was the Danskin event that really made an impression
on Jen.
"You realize that there are these women who are doing this
triathalon and they're not athletes," she said.
Some of the people they've met at the information meetings for
the Avon walk are in a similar situation. Some are men who are
walking to support or remember a wife, daughter or mother. Some
are women and men who are survivors of breast cancer, or perhaps
still in recovery. And some are people who didn't train for months,
but still want to help contribute to a cause.
Walking the 40-mile route around the city of Boston is a physical
and economic challenge for the Modzeleski sisters. Two days of
walking uses a different set of muscles than running, Jen said.
"No one in my family has ever ventured to raise $1,800 (for
a cause)," Jess said.
Donations have come mostly from family, though Jess had a table
set up at the polls in March. She collected $110 from voters.
School professors have helped out as well. Jen goes to Simmons
College in Massachusetts, and Jess is a student at Rivier College
in Nashua. Some of the people who have donated have asked the
sisters to walk in the memory of someone.
They're not complete strangers to the effects of cancer on a
family. Their 85-year-old great grandmother had a double mastectomy
when they were younger, and two of their cousins have been diagnosed
with tumors. Their mother has found lumps in her breasts, but
all of her biopsies have come back negative.
"Even if it wasn't in our family, I think we'd (walk) anyway,"
Jess said, "because it could be me 15 years down the road."
Some of the money they raise for the walk in May could help them
out some day.
Information on the Avon Foundation's Web site states that the
foundation doesn't donate to one institution. There are six walks
held in different cities throughout the year, and the money raised
from each walk is donated to local institutions based on need.
So, money that the Modzeleski's raise could help pay for a breast
cancer screening center in the state that the twins might use
one day.
Even if they don't benefit directly, their effort will help someone,
Jess said.
If they can't raise the total amount of money before the walk,
the twins said they can put in their own money to make up the
difference and continue fundraising for a month after the event.
But without the total, they can't participate in the Boston event.
"In a way it's a bad thing that you can't walk just to walk,"
Jen said.
But the chance to help fund cancer research and education was
a chance the twins couldn't pass up. It's a belief in the power
of volunteering for a cause that Jen said was impressed on them
by their mother.
Until May 15 and 16, the sisters will use the hills of Dunbarton
as a way to get ready for the challenge. The satisfaction that
comes from a large group effort will have to wait until they
stroll, perhaps with tender feet, across the finish line alongside
the other people who were walking with the same purpose.
For more information on the Avon Foundation and the Walk for
Breast Cancer go to www.avonwalk.org.
To sponsor Jess and Jen Modzeleski, make a check out to: Avon
Walk for Breast Cancer and send the donation to, Modzeleski,
280 Stark Highway South, Dunbarton NH 03046, or you can donate
online at the Web site address above.
Dunbarton
Town's students
have a 'green' vision
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By LARA SKINNER
Staff Writer
lskinner@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Planning for town growth is a task usually
left to adults.
But some fifth-grade students at Dunbarton Elementary School
were so excited to talk about planning that they broke into song.
It was a serenade prompted by the question, "Is there anything
that you would like to see added to the village or the town in
general?"
"A town song!" Kyle Auger said, runninng to get the
words for the song that the fourth- and fifth-graders wrote with
the help of last year's artist-in-residence.
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CONNECT THE DOTS: Colored
dots line the Dunbarton town map from north to south as Jeffrey
Trexler, a master plan subcommittee member, helps fifth-grader
Tom Montgomery find the general location of his house.
(Lara Skinner Photo)
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"Dum-dee-dum-dum, if anybody asks
you where I'm fro-om, where I'm fro-om, where I'm fro-om. If
anybody asks you where I'm fro-om, tell 'em I'm from Dun-bar-ton."
The group of six crooners sang through all the verses and no
one tried to stop them. It was a display of pride that was unexpected.
Most of the students' responses to the planning questions surprised
the residents who volunteered to spend their afternoon to help
the kids learn a bit about the master plan process.
Patti Shearin, who serves on the subcommittee for historical
cultural resources, helped to organize the day, along with staff
from the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission.
Holding a visioning forum for the fifth-graders was more than
an exercise. All of the student responses will get added to the
information collected by the town, and their opinions could influence
how the town grows in the next 20 years.
"Sometimes their views are untainted," Shearin said.
Before the mini-forum started, she explained the town survey
to the students.
Group leader Lee Richmond said the students' opinions will help
the subcommittees focus on what the town wants. He plans on talking
about the forum with the existing and future land use subcommittee
at its next meeting on Tuesday, April 20.
"(Children) have relatively pure vision unencumbered by
economic realities," Richmond said.
Richmond worked with one of the student groups on Friday, April
9, and said that many of the children were "greener"
than the adults in the community.
Parks, playgrounds, woods and wildlife were at the top of the
list of things the children wanted to preserve about Dunbarton.
Places to shop came up, too, and anyone who decided to open an
ice cream parlor in the center of town would certainly get some
customers, they said.
Overall, the children wanted to keep the town small and rural.
The opinions of about 35 fifth-graders appeared to echo the results
from the town survey that the master plan steering committee
sent out at the end of last year.
Out of the 490 people who responded to the survey, 77 percent
wanted to keep the small-town atmosphere, and only 2.7 percent
thought developing employment opportunities in the town is important.
A mix is still good, though, fifth-grader Holly Josephson said,
because so many people want different things.
"Half should be nature and half should be stores,"
she said.
Not too many stores, however, because things like "quickie
marts" are associated with cities, John Disdaoe said. And
Dunbarton shouldn't be a city.
Adults and fifth-graders may generally agree, but Shearin said
she has one more age group to talk to.
On Tuesday, April 20, she is going to hold a forum for the teen
population at 7 p.m. in the elementary school. Superinten-dent
Darrell Lockwood is helping organize the event, she said, and
any Dunbarton student who goes to school in Goffstown is invited
to the forum.
There's a loss of unity when kids start to go to the middle and
high school out of town, she said. Having a forum specifically
for teens should help get some of that back.
If the land use subcommittee is open to the idea, Shearin said
she will try to bring the teens to their meeting, which is scheduled
for the same night.
"We don't get a lot of visitors to our meetings," she
said.
By showing the children what's happening in town, she hopes they
will start talking about Dunbarton's future with their parents.
Maybe a few will even get involved.
"More so too, is to show the kids that they can make a difference,"
she said.
All of the fifth-graders went home with a small map of town
Goffstown
Schools' emergency
response now plans for the big chill
By RUSS CHOMA
Staff Writer
rchoma@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Keeping backpacks nearby that are filled
with emergency supplies is one solution to avoid a repeat of
last winter's evacuation of students into subfreezing temperatures
without their coats.
While Mountain View Middle School has one of the best emergency
response systems in the state, all the planning and drills worked
too well on Jan. 23 when a power surge caused the building's
fire alarm to go off.
Although the building was cleared almost immediately, after evacuating
students the faculty and staff were confronted with an unexpected
dilemma.
The temperature outside had dropped to around 15 degrees with
a windchill of 11 below zero.
Many of the students, who are trained to leave the building immediately,
did not take their winter coats with them as they stepped outside.
After spending almost 15 minutes outdoors, 60 students ended
up being evaluated for hypothermia and eight were treated at
the hospital.
Despite the minimal chances of encountering such severe conditions
again in the near future, school officials have spent the last
several months tweaking their emergency response plans.
At the time of the Jan. 23 incident, SAU 19 Superintendent Darrell
Lockwood said the reworking wasn't a sign of the district's inability
to handle an emergency, but rather was a response to the broad
spectrum of situations officials might contend with.
"We'll continue to brainstorm and hopefully come up with
some ideas," he said. "But I don't know if a safety
plan is ever final. You have to create contingencies for many
what-ifs."
Mountain View Middle School Principal Rose Colby said those "what-ifs"
were reconsidered by a committee that included representatives
from the district, fire department and parent groups.
Colby said one change being made at Mountain View is to
include backpacks filled with supplies to protect against the
elements. Each classroom will be equipped with a backpack which
teachers could easily grab while exiting the building.
Colby said the parent teacher group, Parents and Faculty Together
(PFT), had been particularly instrumental in acquiring the supplies,
such as space blankets.
On a district-wide level, Lockwood said each school's principal
is meeting with staff to identify particular solutions.
For example, he said school officials have identified an outdoor
pumphouse at Mountain View where additional supplies could
be stored.
Lockwood said another change is that after an alarm, school staff
will automatically call the police or fire department.
During last winter's incident, students stayed outside slightly
longer than expected because the power surge affected the alarm
panel which ordinarily dials the fire department.
Lockwood said discussions are also going on at each school about
whether a full evacuation is always necessary.
"In the past it was sort of a traditional understanding
that during a fire alarm you went outside and you didn't go back
inside," he said. "And this taught us that doesn't
necessarily have to happen. We could clear areas, like the cafeteria
or gymnasium (as safe for students) because we do have fire walls."
"But that's going on building by building," Lockwood
said. "And that's a positive move, and I think one that
other districts can look towards."
New Boston
Police meetings
are hush-hush
By LARA SKINNER
Staff Writer
lskinner@yourneighborhoodnews.com
Something's brewing at the police department,
and it's not a pot of coffee for the first shift.
Over the past month, selectmen have held nonpublic meetings with
the staff of the department and have sealed the notes from the
meetings for the next 10 years.
Town Administrator Burton Reynolds said the meetings and minutes
are being kept under wraps because selectmen wanted to give the
department staff a chance to speak freely.
"We have real tremendous longevity (at the department),"
Reynolds said.
People who work for the police department have made long-term
commitments and the town doesn't want to jeopardize that, he
said.
Though he wouldn't comment on the content of the meetings, Reynolds
did confirm that they were similar to a department review. Selectmen
are trying to determine the best way to move forward, he said.
Police Chief Gregory Begin wouldn't comment on the meetings either.
"I hate throwing up the brick wall," he said. "But
in this one I have too."
It took a while for Begin to return a phone call on Monday because
he said he was the only one working at the department.
Meetings with selectmen have never been a standard procedure
as far as he knows, and Begin said he believes the selectmen
requested the non-public sessions.
A public statement about the meetings should come from selectmen
in the next few weeks, Reynolds said.
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