Foster's Article on Friday's School Board Workshop

As published by Roni Reino in Foster's, the following article summarizes some of the topics discussed at the Friday school board workshop help with superintendent Leon Levesque.

A couple of other points I'd like to bring out.

1. School board use of orcsd.org emails.  

At the previous board meeting and reiterated at the workshop, Mr. Levesque has started a policy of having all board members use orcsd.org email address to communicate internally and with the public to comply more effectively with the NH Right to Know law.  I find this quite ironic as over a year ago former board chair Mark Townsend actually brought this up and was a strong supporter of using orcsd.org email accounts again in the interest of complying with and streamlining the Right to Know requests.  At that time, it was opposed by JoAnn Portalupi and David Taylor who just didn't see the need for it.

2. Pledge of Allegiance 

Mr. Levesque also made mention of saying the pledge of allegiance prior to board meetings.  It was mentioned as something done in the past at his previous districts and he was simply adding the option here. It is said in the schools and there is a policy in case kids want to opt out.  So, I do not see the harm in adding this to the board meetings whatsoever.  I do not know where the board stands on this although I would hope they consider this a completely harmless addition that would actually demonstrate some unity instead of a political debate about the pledge.  It would be nice if the audience would be allowed to participate as well prior to meetings.

Foster's Article:

DURHAM — School Board members are hoping to increase communication with the community and upgrade technology. 

At a Friday School Board retreat and workshop session, Superintendent Leon Levesque said he is working with Director of Instruction Danielle Bolduc to get microphones that amplify board member's voices so that everyone present at meetings can hear what is being said.  

Currently, when a room is full, it is difficult for everyone in the room to hear what is being said by board members, he added. 

With the increasing use of technology in businesses and schools, Levesque said it would be in the best interest of the board to have laptops. 

"Maybe you need to look into the 21st century and get laptops. Have your e-mail and agendas on it," he said. 

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