NASHUA – The new year is bringing new roles for certain members on the Board of Education. During Monday’s meeting, former board president Dotty Oden nominated board member Heather Raymond as president for 2019.

Raymond was approved unanimously.

Referring to a previous board meeting where board member Howard Coffman and Raymond argued over the rules of bringing new agenda items to meetings the night of, Coffman asked Raymond if she was going to follow the latest revision of the board’s policy BEDB, which states, “Every Board member has the right to place items on the agenda under New Business;” “Items not included on the agenda may be brought up under New Business by any Board member;” and “The name of the Board member making the request shall be included on the agenda with the request.”

Raymond admitted that during the Dec. 10 meeting, she was mistaken when she said adding new business at the meetings violates the Right to Know law.

“Had I known that at the time, I would have withdrawn my objection. Knowing that now, I would not object again in the future, as my goal is always to follow the law,” Raymond told Coffman

during Monday’s meeting. “But having said that, I do encourage all Board members to submit their agenda items before the Tuesday prior to the meeting, so that it’s on the agenda and we all have a chance to prepare.”

Coffman also asked Raymond how she will handle requests for information from the Board. Raymond said items that are time sensitive or need immediate action should be focused on first. She added board members need information in order to do their due diligence, but they shouldn’t be second guessing every single thing and shouldn’t be micro-managing.

“We hire good people to do their jobs,” Raymond told Coffman. “But when board members need to know things in order to do our jobs effectively, I certainly wouldn’t put up barriers to people getting information that they need for that.”

After Raymond was selected as president, the Board was then able to make nominations for the position of board clerk. Board member Susan Porter moved to nominate current board clerk Raymond Guarino for another term. Board member Doris Hohensee moved to nominate board member Elizabeth Van Twuyver for clerk.

With a vote of 5-3, not counting board member William Mosher who said he would abstain from voting because he was torn, Guarino was elected as board clerk for 2019.

The board also welcomed two new student representatives for 2019. Both juniors, Jamila-Ashanti Scales will represent Nashua High School North and George Eid will represent Nashua High School South.

“I promise that I will do the best I can at relaying my school’s opinions on the topics that are important to them at (Nashua High School North) and things that affect my school,” Scales said.

“I hope to do the same and I’m thankful for the privilege to work with the board, and I’m looking forward to the year and to learning a lot from the group,” Eid added.

In other business, the board voted unanimously to approve a contract with Imagine Learning to purchase English Language Learner literacy software at a cost of $42,000, which would come from Title III grant funding. Chief Operating Officer Dan Donovan said with the high English Language Learner student to teacher ratio, this software is valuable.

The board also approved multiple grants. Fairgrounds Elementary School was chosen as the grant recipient for the Southern New Hampshire University Celtics Tech Lab Grant. Through this grant, a STEM technology lab for video production with chromebooks and new furniture will be built in the school. The project will be completed by the end of the month. Though some board members had concerns over the financial upkeep of this lab, the board voted unanimously on the motion to accept the grant.

The board also voted to accept $11,600.19 in grant awards from the Nashua Education foundation from the fall of 2018.

Grace Pecci may be contacted at 594-1243 or gpecci@nashuatelegraph.com.