Also on today’s menu:
Confusion On EFA Program and Special Education
Former Police Chief Indicted On Felony Theft Charges
Searchers Seek Missing Ski Climber
The Newfound Area School Board has accepted on first reading a budget planning policy that, according to Superintendent Pierre Couture, “will be aligned with what is actually happening” in the district. The proposed policy removes the school board from the budget preparation process, giving the superintendent the authority to set the guidelines and present a proposed spending plan directly to the budget committee.
The change is prompted, in part, by the condensed timeline for developing a budget. In order to meet the requirements of the Official Ballot Act (SB2), the budget has to be completed by January. That means that principals have to start developing their budgets for the following year as soon as school opens, just two months into the current budget, which took effect on July 1.
The current budget development policy, adopted in 1998, does not even mention a budget committee, the original policy having been developed before the school district had established a budget committee, a tax cap, and a split school district meeting.
While the budget committee now controls the budget from the start, the school board retains the ability to adjust spending as long as it does not exceed the total budget figure. As an example, Couture said that, if the budget committee recommends eliminating five teachers, the school board might shift other spending to retain three of them.
Confusion On EFA Program and Special Education
The parental handbook put out by the Children’s Scholarship Fund, which administers the Education Freedom Account program, states that, when a parent enrolls a child in a private school, the right to special education services is forfeited because, unlike public schools, private schools are not required to provide “free appropriate public education.”
“[C]hildren with disabilities shall not be entitled to a FAPE (free appropriate public education) in connection with their enrollment by their parents in a private school … while participating in the state-funded EFA program,” the handbook states.
The governor’s office affirmed that “Children in a private school setting may receive [individual service plans] which help guide the special education services for the child — often in their public school districts, but may also be provided out of district if necessary.” However, special education advocates say the key word is “may.” That means that the services also may not be provided.
Former Police Chief Indicted On Felony Theft Charges
A Cheshire County Superior Court Grand Jury has indicted former Richmond Police Department Officer-in-Charge and Hancock Police Chief Andrew Wood, 53, of Fitzwilliam on one Class A felony count of theft by unauthorized taking and one Class A felony count of theft by deception.
Police alleged that, between January 5, 2017, and June 27, 2019, Wood submitted weekly timesheets to the Town of Raymond for hours of work not performed.
A class A felony is punishable by a 7½- to 15-year state prison sentence and a $4,000 fine.
Searchers Seek Missing Ski Climber
Nepalese rescuers in a helicopter continued the search for Hilaree Nelson, 49, who was skiing with her partner, Jim Morrison, down from the 26,775-foot summit of Mount Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest mountain, when she fell off the mountain on Monday, according to Jiban Ghimire of the Kathmandu-based Shangri-La Nepal Trek that organized and outfitted the expedition.
Nelson, from Telluride, Colorado, and Morrison, from Tahoe, California, are extreme skiers who summited Mount Lhotse, the world's fourth-highest, in 2018.
Bad weather hampered rescue efforts on Monday, but with good visibility in improved weather conditions Tuesday, a helicopter was used to look for signs of the missing climber, Ghimire said.
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