Mock Emergency Drill on May 5

IMPORTANT NOTICE to the 

Raymond Community

Iber Holmes Gove Middle School

May 5, 2015 12:30-1:30 PM

MOCK EMERGENCY DRILL 

Dear Families:

All of us are concerned for the safety of our families in these uncertain times.   We in the school district are most concerned with protecting our students and staff.  We want to update you on our efforts to honor our commitment to maintaining a safe, secure learning environment.

Each school has a “Crisis Response Plan” in place.  Key personnel have participated in Crisis Response Training.  Each school has practiced lockdowns and/or “shelter in place”, as well as numerous fire drills.  In addition, Raymond High School and the Lamprey River Elementary School have held mock disaster drills.

This school year, the Raymond Community Crisis Response Board (RCCRB) will be coordinating a mock drill at the middle school on May 5 from approximately 12:30-1:30 PM.  This drill may involve a lockdown and/or an evacuation of students and staff.  Both town and school will be responding as they would in a real crisis.  Valuable insight into agencies and school response time during this drill will allow us to fine tune our crisis plan. The goal of this drill is to assess current emergency protocols and to learn what can be done to improve them in the event that evacuation is necessary in a genuine emergency situation.

On May 5^th, town emergency personnel, including police and ambulance services, will stage a mock emergency situation at the middle school.  This evacuation will be treated as a real emergency and as such, any parents, volunteers or visitors who are at the school will be included as part of the evacuation drill and will proceed as directed by school personnel for the entire drill.

This drill is just one part of the Town Emergency Plan, which has been in production for the past fifteen years with input from emergency personnel, state officials, and school staff.  Everyone participating in this drill will gain practical experience in what to do in the event of an emergency. 

We request, if at all possible, that parents do not schedule appointments for this time period on May 5, 2015 for which students would require dismissal during the evacuation drill.  It is also important to note that during this drill, the middle school will be closed and locked. 

Please rest assured that all procedures and drills throughout the year are designed for the protection of your children and our district staff.  We appreciate your continued support and cooperation.

Only Two Weeks Left!

 There are only two weeks left to send in application to make a very important decision for our students and our town!  We are convening a new Lamprey River Elementary School Building Committee to take another look at the research and information that has been collected over the past few years.  Included in this information is a Building Needs Assessment, the Elementary School Educational Specifications, and a 5-year plan for the elementary school.  We also have information on previous sites reviewed by the committee.  We need your input!

We are asking for interested community members, parents and teachers to write a letter to the School Board and apply to be a member on the new Building Committee.  These letters can be addressed to:

Raymond School Board
SAU #33
43 Harriman Hill Road
Raymond, NH 03077

The School Board will choose the committee members at their May 6, 2015 Board meeting from those who apply- please make sure that your letter is received by April 30th for consideration to be on this committee.  The make-up of the committee will be as follows:  2 Raymond citizens; 2 parents; 2 teachers; 1 School Board member; the Facilities Director, Todd Ledoux; Principal Dan Legallo; Business Administrator Ron Brickett; and Ellen Small, Superintendent.

The List

The opening of school each year is such an exciting time that I never get tired of those first few days and look forward to each new year:  the excitement of families eager for the new adventures their students will have; the brand-new kindergarten students arriving; teachers seeing their new students for the first time; the first days of being in high school; the anticipation of being a senior; and so much more!

With the new school year, there are also many new responsibilities for students and their families and our teachers. This past August, Jamie Vollmer spoke to our staff at the opening session.  He has done considerable research on the many changes that have taken place in schools and the"increasing burdens placed on public education". With permission from the author, here is Jamie Vollmer's List.

                               The Ever Increasing Burden on America’s Public Schools

                                                                                                                  By Jamie Vollmer

America’s public schools can be traced back to the year 1640. The Massachusetts Puritans established schools to: 1) Teach basic reading, some writing and arithmetic skills, and
2) Cultivate values that serve a democratic society (some history and civics implied).
The founders of these schools assumed that families and churches bore the major responsibility for raising a child. Gradually, science and geography were added, but the curriculum was limited and remained focused for 260 years.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, politicians, academics, members of the clergy, and business leaders saw public schools as a logical site for the assimilation of immigrants and the social engineering of the citizens—and workers—of the new industrial age. They began to expand the curriculum and assign additional duties. That trend has accelerated ever since.

From 1900 to 1910, we shifted to our public schools responsibilities related to
• Nutrition
• Immunization
• Health (Activities in the health arena multiply every year.)

From 1910 to 1930, we added
• Physical education (including organized athletics)
• The Practical Arts/Domestic Science/Home economics (including sewing and cooking)
• Vocational education (including industrial and agricultural education)
• Mandated school transportation

In the 1940s, we added
• Business education (including typing, shorthand, and bookkeeping)
• Art and music
• Speech and drama
• Half-day kindergarten
• School lunch programs (We take this for granted today, but it was a huge step to shift to the schools the job of feeding America’s children one third of their daily meals.)

In the 1950s, we added
• Expanded science and math education
• Safety education
• Driver’s education
• Expanded music and art education
• Stronger foreign language requirements
• Sex education (Topics continue to escalate.)

In the 1960s, we added
• Advanced Placement programs
• Head Start
• Title I
• Adult education
• Consumer education (purchasing resources, rights and responsibilities)
• Career education (occupational options, entry level skill requirements)
• Peace, leisure, and recreation education [Loved those sixties.]

In the 1970s, the breakup of the American family accelerated, and we added
• Drug and alcohol abuse education
• Parenting education (techniques and tools for healthy parenting)
• Behavior adjustment classes (including classroom and communication skills)
• Character education
• Special education (mandated by federal government)
• Title IX programs (greatly expanded athletic programs for girls)
• Environmental education
• Women’s studies
• African-American heritage education
• School breakfast programs (Now some schools feed America’s children two-thirds of their daily meals throughout the school year and all summer. Sadly, these are the only decent meals some children receive.)

In the 1980s, the floodgates opened, and we added
• Keyboarding and computer education
• Global education
• Multicultural/Ethnic education
• Nonsexist education
• English-as-a-second-language and bilingual education
• Teen pregnancy awareness
• Hispanic heritage education
• Early childhood education
• Jump Start, Early Start, Even Start, and Prime Start
• Full-day kindergarten
• Preschool programs for children at risk
• After-school programs for children of working parents
• Alternative education in all its forms
• Stranger/danger education
• Antismoking education
• Sexual abuse prevention education
• Expanded health and psychological services
• Child abuse monitoring (a legal requirement for all teachers)

In the 1990s, we added
• Conflict resolution and peer mediation
• HIV/AIDS education
• CPR training
• Death education
• America 2000 initiatives (Republican)
• Inclusion
• Expanded computer and internet education
• Distance learning
• Tech Prep and School to Work programs
• Technical Adequacy
• Assessment
• Post-secondary enrollment options
• Concurrent enrollment options
• Goals 2000 initiatives (Democrat)
• Expanded Talented and Gifted opportunities
• At risk and dropout prevention
• Homeless education (including causes and effects on children)
• Gang education (urban centers)
• Service learning
• Bus safety, bicycle safety, gun safety, and water safety education

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, we have added
• No Child Left Behind (Republican)
• Bully prevention
• Anti-harassment policies (gender, race, religion, or national origin)
• Expanded early childcare and wrap around programs
• Elevator and escalator safety instruction
• Body Mass Index evaluation (obesity monitoring)
• Organ donor education and awareness programs
• Personal financial literacy
• Entrepreneurial and innovation skills development
• Media literacy development
• Contextual learning skill development
• Health and wellness programs
• Race to the Top (Democrat)

This list does not include the addition of multiple, specialized topics within each of the traditional subjects. It also does not include the explosion of standardized testing and test prep activities, or any of the onerous reporting requirements imposed by the federal government, such as four-year adjusted cohort graduation rates, parental notification of optional supplemental services, comprehensive restructuring plans, and reports of Adequate Yearly Progress.
It’s a ponderous list.
Each item has merit, and all have their ardent supporters, but the truth is that we have added these responsibilities without adding a single minute to the school calendar in six decades. No generation of teachers and administrators in the history of the world has been told to fulfill this mandate: not just teach children, but raise them!
© 2011 Jamie Vollmer |


I hope that you agree that Jamie's list certainly validates all the work our staff and families do each and every day all year long!

A Call for Members for a new Elementary School Building Committee

We have a responsibility to our students to provide for them the best education possible and this includes a facility that is conducive to learning.  Unfortunately, the Lamprey Elementary School building is over-crowded and, in its current state, does not meet our educational needs. Our solution in the past has been to rent portable buildings- these, too, are inadequate. 

Previous Building Committees have researched and collected all the information necessary to make an informed decision about what the next steps should be for our children.  For this reason, the School Board has committed to convening a new Building Committee to examine these materials and do any research necessary to present a solution for the elementary school issues to the Board.

We are asking for interested community members, parents and teachers to write a letter to the School Board and apply to be a member on the new Building Committee.  These letters can be addressed to:

Raymond School Board
SAU #33
43 Harriman Hill Road
Raymond, NH 03077

The School Board will choose the committee members at their May 6, 2015 Board meeting- please make sure that your letter is received by April 30th for consideration to be on this committee.  The make-up of the committee will be as follows:  2 Raymond citizens; 2 parents; 2 teachers; 1 School Board member; the Facilities Director, Todd Ledoux; Principal Dan Legallo; Business Administrator Ron Brickett; and Ellen Small, Superintendent.