Lola Duffort, Concord Monitor News

Lola Duffort

Concord Monitor News

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Past:
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Past articles by Lola:

Concord School District commissions study to predict future enrollment​​​​​​

The Concord school board has commissioned a demographic study to forecast enrollment trends.The $16,500 contract will go to Davis Demographics & Planning, Inc., a California-based firm that make enrollment projections seven years into the... → Read More

Pembroke Academy to celebrate its 200th birthday

Pembroke Academy will be kicking off a year-long celebration of its 200th birthday with a day of events at the high school Saturday.“We want to first honor Pembroke Academy’s role in the community and celebrate its historical heritage,” said Dan... → Read More

Report: Charter schools struggle to pay for inadequate facilities

Unlike traditional schools, PACE Career Academy, a charter high school in Allenstown, doesn’t have a prep kitchen, a band room, or athletic fields. Instead, it rents space at the Suncook Business Park in Allenstown, and makes do with reworked office... → Read More

Sunshine Week: N.H. AG won’t reveal why it thinks school voucher bill is constitutional

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office is required by law to offer legal opinions on “any question of law” submitted by either branch of the Legislature.Historically, those opinions are public, and even posted on the Attorney General’s... → Read More

Some say N.H.’s school funding formula could lead to a lawsuit

With property-poor towns clamoring to stop cuts to state education aid, lawmakers decided last legislative session to study the state’s formula for funding schools more closely over a year.But with the panel’s work focused on redistributing what aid... → Read More

Epsom voters leave school district warrants as is

A few voters complained about ever-increasing taxes at the Epsom school district’s deliberative session Tuesday, but residents ultimately left unamended all three of the school warrants.“If you keep relying solely on taxation to fund the education... → Read More

Concord school leaders propose $81.8M budget, 2 percent tax increase

For a 2 percent bump in the tax rate, Concord’s schools could expand to full-day kindergarten next year.That’s according to the $81.79 million general fund budget proposal presented to the school board Wednesday, when district leaders unveiled a first... → Read More

GOP tax plan worries N.H. students, officials in higher education

As congressional Republicans work out the differences between House and Senate versions of a sweeping tax reform bill, Nathaniel Stafford is bracing himself. The Ph.D. candidate in the psychology department at the University of New Hampshire is one of... → Read More

Accessible voting debuts in Concord for local race

For many, Concord’s municipal election Tuesday was relatively ho-hum. But for the blind and visually impaired, it marked a milestone.“This is the first time ever that there was an accessible voting system available in (a Concord race),” said Guy... → Read More

Two newcomers challenge Croteau for District A school board seat

In wards 1, 2, 3 and 4, Concord voters choosing a school board member to represent District A will have their pick between a veteran of the board and two fresh faces.Tom Croteau, the incumbent and the school board’s secretary, hopes voters will stick... → Read More

Concord school taxes rise 3 percent

The education tax rate in Concord will rise about 3 percent this year.School board members on Wednesday voted, 8-0, to put a small surplus toward a fresh fruit and vegetable program at two elementary schools and the facilities stabilization fund.The... → Read More

Amid talks of Rundlett rebuild, district eyes state money for switch from steam

Just as Concord is weighing plans to rebuild the city’s middle school, the district is eyeing a $19 million pot of state money to recoup some of what was spent on the district’s rushed conversion to natural gas this year.Officials said Wednesday that... → Read More

Competency-based instruction in Concord schools means new grades on reports cards

Parents of Rundlett Middle School students will see a different sort of report card come home at the end of the quarter.Like many districts across New Hampshire, and, increasingly, the country, Concord’s schools are switching to a competency-based... → Read More

After Irma, boy from Tortola comes to Parker Academy

While it received little coverage in the American media, the British Virgin Islands, and in particular, Tortola, the region’s largest island, were one of the places hardest-hit by Hurricane Irma.But at home in Amherst, Missy Gaffney worried... → Read More

Citizen watchdog Right To Know New Hampshire fights for open government

The “Live Free of Die” state prides itself on certain traditions of civic engagement like its citizen Legislature and the first-in-the-nation primary. But speedy, consistent access to government records? That’s a different story.Enter Right to Know... → Read More

Manchester VA whistleblower enters GOP race to challenge Rep. Kuster

A Hopkinton physician who gained prominence as one of the whistleblowers at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Manchester is running for Congress.Stewart Levenson, 60, announced Wednesday he would be a Republican candidate for New Hampshire’s 2nd... → Read More

UNH researchers to study efficacy of sexual assault intervention

University of New Hampshire researchers will study whether training college students on how to handle receiving a sexual assault disclosure from a friend helps those survivors recover better.Sexual assault survivors typically don’t report first to law... → Read More

Rundlett Middle School proposals revealed

Concord residents and the city’s school board got an early look at what a new Rundlett Middle School could one day look like on Wednesday.Architects with HMFH, the Massachusetts firm that designed three new elementary schools for the district in the... → Read More

CHS English teacher is 2018 N.H. Teacher of the Year

Like most assembled in Concord High School auditorium on Tuesday morning, English teacher Heidi Crumrine thought she was there to watch CHS senior Laila Ruffin, the state’s youth poet laureate, be honored.But after Ruffin read her poem about... → Read More

Lawmakers ease credentialing standards for school nurses

Lawmakers have written some wiggle room into the rules attached to a controversial school nurse licensing law.A state law that passed in 2016 required school nurses have a bachelor’s degree and at least three years of pediatric experience. It was... → Read More