Dublin Consolidated School could have a fifth grade class at the beginning of the next school year.
It has not had a fifth grade class since February of last year because all parents opted to move their children to South Meadow School in Peterborough.
Superintendent Kim Saunders said during a regular school board meeting Tuesday night at the Great Brook School in Antrim that the district is projecting 10 students will attend Dublin’s fifth grade class next school year. She said none of those families have indicated a preference one way or another but in the absence of any formal request the default is that students would remain at the school. Parents have until June 30 to make a decision whether their student will stay in DCS or attend SMS.
Twenty-eight students registered to enter Kindergarten at Coval for the 2017 – 2018 school year during a screening at Antrim Elementary School hosted late last month. Of those students who signed up, 14 are from Antrim, six are from Bennington, five are from Francestown, two are from Hancock, and one is from Peterborough.
At the beginning of the 2016- 2017 school year, ConVal had 127 Kindergartens enrolled across the district.
There will be a second screening next Tuesday, March 14 at Peterborough Elementary School from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for children who live in Dublin, Greenfield, Peterborough, Sharon and Temple. The district will hold another screening on Thursday, April 6 at PES from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., which will be open for students in all towns.
Also during the meeting, there was some discussion about restructuring the communications committee.
“Basically it doesn’t seem to be a flow that leads us to communicate things that need to be done by the communications committee,” Communications Committee Chair Stephan Morrissey said about the current structure of the group. “I think we have more valuable time to be spent on other projects.”
He said the problem is that when the board needs to communicate something with the public, it has to be responded to quickly, if not immediately.
“The communications committee is a process that seems like it would take a month to get the news out the door, which is not what I envision a communication committee doing,” Morrissey said.
Peterborough school board member Janine Lesser suggested the board become a more fluid, ad hoc committee, which could expedite the communications process.
Chair of the school board Myron Steere said at certain times throughout the year, it may be important to have the communications committee structured the way it is, such as when the district decides to take out a bond.
No decisions were made regarding the future of the communication committee.
The school board will meet again on Tuesday, March 21.
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.