Timberlane community wants academic improvement

From Today's Eagle Tribune;

Timberlane community wants academic improvement
By Meghan Carey
Staff writer

PLAISTOW — Extracurricular activities are stronger than academics at Timberlane Regional High School, according to some parents.

The voices of 43 parents who recently participated in an e-mail survey speak louder than their sum. Some 44 percent of responding parents said the quality of a Timberlane education has declined in the last three to five years, and 70 percent said academics are what need improvement at the high school. Approximately 1,600 students from Atkinson, Danville, Plaistow and Sandown students attend Timberlane High.

Those parents aren't alone. Local bloggers and discussion board members are echoing the sentiments online. Four local blogs and online forums have had a flurry of postings in the last two weeks under threads labeled "Timberlane has lost its way" and "Timberlane is going down the tubes."

While the posters allege the school administration doesn't see what's going on, Superintendent Richard La Salle said last week he knows improvements are needed at each school.

"I think that there's always a problem with quality," he said.

Administrators have targeted reading and writing at the elementary and middle-school levels as the areas that need immediate attention, La Salle said. At the high school, the superintendent said he has a problem that just 70 percent of graduates go on to some form of college. The statewide average is 75 percent.

"In this day and age, I think the minimum standard is some form of post-secondary education," La Salle said. "We have to get that number up."

At the elementary and middle schools, a new reading program is already in place. Teachers use six steps to help them identify students who are struggling with reading before their grades start to reflect it, La Salle said. His hope is that will prevent students from falling too far behind now, especially since reading is a basis for all subjects.

Anne Isenberg, a mother of two from Atkinson, was recruited this spring to work on the Strategic Planning Committee. She said there's a discrepancy between the community's opinions of the school district and what the district is doing.

When she and her family moved to the area in 1995, she started talking to people about the schools. What Isenberg found was a community distrust in the schools — and she says that hasn't gone away. A lesson in public relations would help the situation, she said.

"They have been very quiet," Isenberg said of school administrators. "They have to realize that without any communication, the rumor mill fills in."

Improvements in communication can go both ways, according to School Board member Stephen Brown.

There's a time at every meeting for parents and taxpayers to make comments about the district, but that time is rarely used. Brown said it's a much more appropriate forum than posting on blogs.

"We listen, we discuss and reply to those comments," Brown said. "We are constantly striving to make the school district better."

The Strategic Planning Committee, which is made up of parents, administrators, teachers and a School Board member, is striving to do the same.

Isenberg and Kate Delfino of Atkinson, two of the parent representatives on the committee, are taking their roles seriously — starting with conducting the parent e-mail survey.

Isenberg said she didn't have every parents' e-mail address, but tried to get the survey to as many people as possible. The results are not scientific and from a narrow segment of the population, but both women said they are still indicative of parents' general opinions.

"It's one piece in a very large puzzle that we are putting together," Delfino said. "It's really just to be able to quantify some of the thoughts and concerns that are on some parents' minds."

Thirty-five percent of those parents said the quality of a Timberlane Regional High School education has stayed the same. Just 12 percent of those surveyed said it had improved over the last three to five years. Forty-four percent said quality has declined.

When asked what the strengths of the high school were, most parents said performing arts and athletics. Safety and security, clubs and special interests tied for third.

Academics didn't make the list.

Whether community sentiment changes in the future, the plan is to change the education provided to the students over the next 10 years, La Salle said.

The Strategic Planning Committee is collecting data from another parent study, state assessment testing, SAT and ACT scores, and the NHEIAP — a state Department of Educational improvement and assessment program — report, the La Salle said.

When the data is turned into a 10-year plan this fall, La Salle said it will be used as a planner during the coming budgeting process and for the years to come.