Dear NSD Families and Staff,

As I announced at Monday's Nashua Board of Education meeting, we are inviting you to attend one of three community forums on redistricting the week of May 15:

• 4-5:30 pm, Monday, May 15 at Nashua HS North
• 6-7:30 pm, Wednesday, May 17 at Fairgrounds Middle School
• 4-5:30 pm, Thursday, May 18 at Nashua HS South

The work of the redistricting committee is wrapping up in early May and we will soon have several potential scenarios to review and revise, as needed. We welcome your input. Our work initially was about redistricting school boundary lines for our middle schools, as part of the middle school renovation and construction project. Now our focus has turned to the elementary schools to address inequities in boundary lines with the drop in enrollment over the last 10 years and because of the uneven class sizes across our elementary schools.

If you cannot make one of the forums and have questions about redistricting, please send an email to the address below and we will get back to you:

middleschoolproject@nashua.edu.

Enjoy vacation next week because we have a lot of work ahead for these final weeks of school. Remember, the last day of school is Wednesday, June 21.

Mario Andrade, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Nashua School District

Several members of the public and staff at Mount Pleasant Elementary School spoke, advocating not to close Mount Pleasant Elementary School. Currently the Redistricting Committee is reviewing school boundary lines with two different configurations. One configuration includes all 12 elementary schools, the other configuration excludes Mount Pleasant Elementary School. All who spoke cited the small class sizes, personalized instruction, academic-focused support staff, and the number of walkers at Mount Pleasant Elementary School as worthy of keeping the school open as a neighborhood-centered school.

Committee on Finance and Operations: The Board approved an Eagle Scout project to install a playground music wall at Franklin Street School. The Board also approved several contracts to replace aging audio equipment in the North lecture hall/BOE room, to pave black tops at several schools this summer, and to fund added NSD security upgrades.

Committee on Human Resources: The Board approved the hiring of two new administrators. Katrina Esparza will serve as the newest principal at Elm Street Middle School, beginning her tenure with the upcoming 2023-2024 school year. Mark Nourse begins May 1 as Director of Transportation.

Unfinished Business: Dr. Andrade started the meeting earlier in the agenda by introducing Amar Kumar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of KaiPod Learning of Newton, Massachusetts. According to the KaiPod Learning website, Dr. Kumar is opening a site and hiring learning coaches in Nashua in August 2023. Dr. Kumar is proposing a collaboration between KaiPod Learning and NSD, using a 2-year commitment of funding from the NH Department of Education, to provide small group, in-person learning centers with NSD funding two teachers for up to 24 students. The Board approved Dr. Andrade working with legal counsel to draft a contract for the Board to review.

New Business: Dr. Andrade announced Mount Pleasant Elementary School was awarded a Children's Literacy Foundation $25,000 Year of the Book grant for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year. Thank you, CLiF!

The next Nashua Board of Education meeting will be held Monday, May 8, 2023 at Nashua High School North.

April 17, 2023

Nashua Board of Education Meeting

Good evening,

Redistricting Committee Work Continues

I begin my comments this evening to bring you up to date with the work of our Redistricting Committee. As I have said before, redistricting is important to be sure we are leveraging our material and human resources in the best way possible to support our students. The work of the Elementary School Redistricting Committee will be wrapping up May 2, the same day as the Board work session.

Just to remind everyone, the Redistricting Committee has been reviewing boundary lines across all 12 elementary schools in the current configuration, and reviewing boundary lines across a configuration that would include closing one of our elementary schools, Mount Pleasant Elementary School. We need to review both configurations because of the drop in enrollment over the last 10 years and because of the uneven classroom sizes across our elementary schools.

To stay current with the development of redistricting plans, please log onto our website at nashua.edu and click on the redistricting page.

Staff and Student Achievement

This week I would like to bring attention to several great happenings in our schools…

First, I want to give a shoutout to Nate Burns, Principal at Nashua High School North, for running the Boston Marathon this morning. This is the second consecutive Boston Marathon Nate has run. I just want to applaud his incredible discipline and athleticism. He ran most of the race in the rain, finishing in 2 hours and 53 minutes. We are proud of you, Nate!

Meals Matter

My guess is many of you remember Meals Matter. Nashua HS North Student Voice members (note below) are looking to rappel 24 floors to participate in the United Way Over the Edge fundraiser in support of Meals Matter. Their goal is to raise funds to eliminate lunch debt for all students across all our schools.

Please help them with this noble effort by logging on to the Nashua North website. A link on the home page will direct you to the Meals Matter dedicated fundraising page.

Energy

Finally, I would like to share great news from plant operations. The array of solar panels on Pennichuck Middle School were turned on last week. Pennichuck joins Dr. Crisp Elementary School and Fairgrounds Middle School with solar panel installations. It is gratifying that we will be producing our own electricity during daylight hours, thereby decreasing our utility bills.

The installation of solar panels is just one part of our commitment to provide healthy learning environments for students and staff. As you may remember, we recently invested nearly $800,000 and completed the installation of high-tech air purification systems in eight of our 18 schools. We are one of the first school districts in New Hampshire to install this cutting-edge air quality technology in its schools.

Thank you.