March 29, 2023
Dear NSD Families and Staff,
I would like to share with you my comments from the Nashua Board of Education meeting Monday about redistricting. In working through redistricting middle school boundaries last month in anticipation of opening McCarthy Middle School in 2024, we are now looking at redistricting the boundary lines between our elementary schools.
I begin my comments this evening by talking about redistricting just as I did the last time we met.
Redistricting is important to be sure we are leveraging our material and staff resources in the best way possible to support our students. The work of the Elementary School Redistricting Committee is in its infancy. Over the next month, we will be looking to review boundary lines across elementary schools in the current configuration and review 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.
Talk of closing a school creates unease and a lot of questions. This is not an easy process because we recognize our students spend more time in elementary school than at any other level throughout their school years and, understandably, students and their families form special bonds during that time.
I want you to know we are undergoing a thorough review process. In the end, what won’t change is what goes on inside our schools and our classrooms. Wherever this process leads us, I want you to know that students’ academic progress and success will be the guiding factor. We want to be sure we are putting our resources in the right places to best serve our students, their families, and the City of Nashua.
To keep up to date with the development of redistricting plans, please log onto our website at nashua.edu and click on the redistricting page. If you have questions, please be sure to submit a form linked to the nashua.edu home page, and we will get back to you, keeping in mind we will know much more later this school year. I appreciate your patience as we work through our redistricting process.
Enjoy the photos below from the districtwide Youth Art Festival open house last week at South.
Mario Andrade, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Nashua School District
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Nashua Board of Education
New business included a recommendation for the Nashua Board of Education to approve a Nashua Board of Aldermen resolution to bond for an additional $10 million "...to Fund Additional Costs for the Design and Construction of a New Middle School and Renovations and Expansion of Pennichuck Middle School Including the Payment of Costs Incidental or Related Thereto," which passed 5-3 with Ms. Brown, Ms. Darling, and Ms. Johnson voting against the motion.
Also, the Board approved a recommendation from Dr. Andrade to recognize Juneteenth, a federal holiday signed into law in 2021. Students and teachers will observe the holiday in the same manner as a snow day on Monday, June 19, pushing the last day of school to Wednesday, June 21.
The Board also approved a collective bargaining agreement between the Board and the Nashua Teachers' Union, effective retroactively to July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2025.
Committee on Finance and Operations: The Board approved several motions including the installation of a Bill Monsen Memorial Bench at the Nashua HS South athletic wing entrance. Bill Monsen was a former teacher at South who sadly passed away late last year.
Committee on Policy: The Board approved six updated policies.
A: Foundations and Basic Commitments
ACE: Procedural Safeguards: Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Handicap/Disability, as amended and to continue to work to update further
G: Personnel
GCCBC-Family and Medical Leave Act
I: Instruction
IKE Grade Promotion, Retention, and Acceleration of Students, as amended
IKE-R Graded Promotion, Retention, and Acceleration of Students Appendix
J: Students
*JJJA Student Extracurricular Eligibility Academic Expectations, as amended
*JJJA-R Student Extracurricular Eligibility Procedures
*updated policies effective as of August 1, 2023, and at that time they will be posted online; in the meantime, current JJJA and JJJA-R policies will remain in effect until then.
The next Nashua Board of Education meeting will be held Monday, April 17, 2023 at Nashua High School North.
