Congratulations to Abigail MacCallum,
a resident of Northwood, NH, who has been named to the Fall 2015
Dean’s List at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I.
Abigail is a Media Communication major. Full-time students who
complete 12 or more credits per semester and earn a GPA of 3.4
or higher are placed on the Dean’s List that semester.
Letter
Tax Impact
Every year a number of Northwood Town
and School Warrant Articles are followed by the sentence: “There
is no additional tax impact if this Article passes.”
Unfortunately, the statement still gives the impression that if
we pass this warrant article it won’t cost us anything.
Sadly, that is not the case.
This wording is often used when the money is taken from surplus.
The surplus, however, represents money we paid in taxes last
year, so it cost us tax money at that time. If the surplus were
used to reduce our tax rate, our upcoming taxes would be lower
than they would be if we spent the surplus. So using the
surplus to buy things, or even “soaking it away” somewhere,
would have a direct impact on our family budgets.
The sentence actually should read something like this: “If this
Article is defeated, taxes will be reduced by as much as 10
cents per $1,000.” This tax-money-without-an-impact is
usually put into a capital reserve fund. Such funds are often
defended as good examples of Yankee thrift.
Now I’m all for Yankee thrift. I’d love to have a “New Roof
Fund,” a “New Car Fund,” a “Bad Winter Fund,” a “House
Painting Fund,” a “New Chicken Coop Capital Reserve
Fund,”--shall I go on?
That would be awfully thrifty of me,
if I could afford it, which I might be able to do, if my income
had a surplus, and all these taxes didn’t have such an impact.
Michael Faiella
Northwood
Letter To
The Editor
I feel compelled to respond to an
incorrect statement made in a recent letter Tom Chase wrote
about Gladys Gardner’s kindergarten in Northwood.
To quote: “And when she retired, a
number of years went by without any kindergarten in town.” There
was in fact a kindergarten program that filled the gap between
when Gladys Gardner retired and public kindergarten became a
reality in Northwood School. We pushed the schoolboard with the
help and dedication of Gladys, by writing a petition, getting
enough signatures, and passing in 1980.
I am an Early Childhood educator of 20-plus years, one of the
founders of the Center School in Northwood, and an
initiator of Northwood’s first non-profit kindergarten, the
Children’s Village Kindergarten. We did indeed have an all-day
program there, called daycare that worked on a sliding fee scale
because of its non-profit status. This should be easily found in
the history of Northwood. Gladys was intimately involved with
the planning and implementation of the Children’s Village
Kindergarten, located at the Brookside School in Northwood
Narrows.
Later, when we succeeded in getting
the public kindergarten approved, we closed the Children’s
Village program as planned. I was one of the young parents at
the time Gladys retired, and my youngest son would have gone
without the benefit of her kindergarten expertise. But, because
of Gladys and many volunteers as well as donations from local
businesses and the cooperation of the church which owns the
Brookside School, we were able to continue providing
kindergarten service for the 4-5 year window of time it took to
pass public kindergarten.
Gladys was a big reason why we were
successful in achieving our goal. She did not want to retire
without a kindergarten operation in place.
Gladys never stopped working for the children or thinking of
others.
Respectfully submitted to correct an
omission, Diane Dalrymple-Robinson, Master’s of Ed.
Letter To
The Editor
Better Late
This letter was to have appeared in last week’s Sun, but got
lost in cyberspace. Even though the vote has been taken,
my argument for full-day kindergarten remains valid, and
win or lose, I encourage the newly constituted School
Board to move forward. When only 37% of our
kindergarteners are at “benchmark,” something needs to change.
Oh, and by the way, we might save $40+ thousand by not running a
mid-day bus.
- - - -
My thanks to Mike Faiella for calling my attention to an article
in the Canadian newsweekly Macleans on the implementation of
full-day K in Ontario. Quoting from his recent letter, we read
“Early intervention can improve school readiness for
disadvantaged children.”
That’s the argument in a nutshell. If
you are an advantaged kid, you’ll do just fine. If not, early
intervention helps.
This showed up quite clearly in data (Tim Jandebeur’s favorite
word) that was collected on last year’s half-day
kindergarten class. As presented at the last School Board
meeting, the data showed that in May of last year, only 37% of
the 42 kids reached benchmark on identifying letter sound
(a foundational reading skill). 63% did not.
Fortunately, in the First Grade, additional time was spent on
these kids, so that in the Fall assessment, 52% reached
benchmark, and in the Winter, 68% reached benchmark. After this
assessment, “moving forward,… more targeted instruction”
was seen to be “beneficial,” according to the report by
Erica MacNeil, Assistant Special Education Director for S.A.U.
44.
It is my contention that a full-day kindergarten program will
allow time for additional instruction, so that ALL kids
can be brought up to speed, ready for First Grade. And
that the time, energy and expense that are currently being
spent on “catch-up” will be unnecessary.
And thanks again, Mike.
Tom Chase
Northwood
Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Alumni Association
Scholarship
The Coe-Brown Northwood Academy Alumni Association is currently
accepting scholarship applications for 2016. Scholarships are
available at
http://www.coebrown.org/alumni or by emailing
[email protected].
Qualified applications will be graduates of Coe-Brown (including
the graduating class of 2016).
Please mail completed applications to:
Coe-Brown
Northwood Academy Alumni Association
Attention: Rebecca
Stevens
907 First New
Hampshire Turnpike
Northwood, NH
03261
The submission deadline is April 1,
2016 at 12pm.
Any questions can be directed to Rebecca at
[email protected].
Please do not contact Coe-Brown Northwood Academy for
scholarship inquiries.
Roy Herbert DeCota
Obituaries
Deerfield—Roy Herbert DeCota died
February 24, 2016 at home surrounded by many of his loving
family members.
He was born in Manchester on July 8, 1952, the son of Roy A.
“Joe” and Donna (Yeaton) DeCota. A lifelong resident of
Deerfield, he graduated from Raymond High School in 1971. He was
employed by Hutter Construction until his early retirement in
2000 when he began his career as a full time farmer. A
practical, hands-on guy, he was always ready to lend a hand,
share his knowledge of raising cattle, pigs and oxen, and teach
others the skills for living off the land. He enjoyed gardening,
contra dancing, fishing and hunting.
He spent most of his life out of
doors, being a good steward of his land. He was beloved by his
family who include his wife Evelyn DeCota; his children Emily
Burtt (Adam) of Barnstead, and James DeCota (Jill) of Haverhill,
MA; his stepchildren Ken Cronyn of Newark, DE and Sarah Miller
(Lucas) of Worcester, MA; his mother Donna DeCota; his siblings
Jerry DeCota (Diana), Debra DeCota Burtt (Russell) and Laurie
DeCota, all of Deerfield; a nephew Jason DeCota (Kendra) of
Strafford. He was proud to be called Grandpa Hey by his 9
grandchildren: Emmett, Isaac, Josie, Naomi, Simon and Wyatt
Burtt, Kaleb and Kylie Cronyn, and Benjamin Miller. He was
predeceased by his father, Joe DeCota, in 2005.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations
may be made to Manchester Visiting Nurse Association—Hospice
Services, 1070 Holt Ave, Suite 1400, Manchester NH 03109.
The celebration of Herb’s life will be on Thursday, March 10 at
Still Oaks Funeral Home, Route 28, Epsom (1 mile north of Epsom
traffic circle) Calling hours will be from 2-3:30 pm,
service at 3:30 pm followed by a reception there. Private burial
will be at the family’s An on-line guestbook is available at
stilloaks.com.