Rochester considers establishing the state’s first “magnet school,” potentially changing the face of education in New Hampshire.

The traditional 180-day public school year was established well over a century ago, and American students have been enjoying lengthy summer breaks ever since. But Dr. Anthony Pastelis of Rochester thinks it’s time we took another look at the school calendar, which he believes is now long outdated.

“It goes back to the days when we were a farming nation and these schoolchildren needed to work the family farms,” Pastelis said. “Not many family farms in Rochester. Yet, as a nation, we keep the old calendar. It’s just silly. It’s not common sense.”

Pastelis is a member of the Rochester School Board and sits on the board of directors of the New Hampshire School Board Association. He’s also a professor of teacher education at Endicott College near Boston. He’s a strong supporter of a proposal to turn Rochester’s Maple Street School into New Hampshire’s first “magnet school.”

One component of the facility would be a lengthened school year, probably to about 200 days. It would also have a focused curriculum with possible themes including math and science, engineering and technology, integrated arts or languages.

Rochester superintendent of schools Michael Hopkins has been leading the push for the magnet school. He said it would provide a new educational option for students, parents and teachers, and would potentially give students a leg up at a time when demand for highly skilled workers is rising across the country.

“I think it has the potential to be a valuable option for students and parents, and for staff,” Hopkins said. “We have some staff who are very excited about the idea of trying some changes and having some flexibility with what they do.”

Hopkins has already held several focus group meetings to discuss the idea and gauge public interest in the proposal. He’s in the process of establishing a steering committee of eight to 10 people to help determine the school’s theme and mission.

Generally speaking, magnet schools meet the same state standards as traditional public schools. The difference is that magnet schools have a specific academic theme or focus. Successful magnet schools, according to Hopkins, have rigorous course work and high expectations for students. They also demand strong parental and community involvement, including partnerships with area businesses and universities.

There are numerous magnet schools around the country, including several in New England. There are two in Burlington, Vt., and one in Salem, Mass., called the Saltonstall School. Pastelis, who has worked with Saltonstall through Endicott College, said the school has now been operating for more than a decade.

But Maple Street would be the first magnet school in New Hampshire. Pastelis said he is not aware of any other district in the state that has considered one.

Hopkins began discussing the idea with the School Board about a year and a half ago. They at first considered establishing a magnet school at the high school level but soon realized they lacked the necessary space. They instead began exploring opportunities to convert one of the city’s eight elementary schools.

Maple Street School currently serves students from kindergarten to third grade. It’s got capacity for up to 135 students, which is the population Hopkins envisions for a 2012 opening of the magnet school. It would include kindergarten through fifth grade, with 18 to 25 students per grade level.

There are several different models for magnet schools. Hopkins favors a personal learning plan for all students. The school would maintain a traditional classroom setting with full group instruction, but it would cater to each student’s learning level. Kids who excel would have opportunities to move into more advanced classes.

“We would really develop a plan to get students to make as much progress as they could and really focus on that,” Hopkins said. 

Entry into the school would be based on a lottery system. Parents or guardians interested in enrolling their children should be prepared to play an integral role in their learning plans and meet frequently with teachers.

One of the benefits of a magnet school, Hopkins said, is that it strengthens the link between parents and staff.

Based on the focus group meetings, the most recent of which took place on Sept. 20 and drew about 20 people, interest in the magnet school is high. Parents have been engaged and have contributed several ideas.

Pastelis noted that one parent suggested teaching foreign languages as early as kindergarten.

“A lot of parents are coming to the table with some very good ideas,” Pastelis said. “I think it’s key to this magnet school that parents bring their ideas to the table, and they’ve stepped up to the plate really well.”
Tania Perry, a Rochester resident with a second-grader at the Gonic School, said she would be interested in enrolling her child. Following the last focus group meeting, Perry said the magnet would be a particularly strong option for advanced students.

“If they’re going to be more rigorous with the coursework, I think that’s a good thing,” she said. “Some of the kids are more advanced and there’s nothing for them right now, so this might be a good option for the more advanced kids in the district.”

But Perry worries a random lottery system would not necessarily yield the most qualified students for the school and some kids might not be ready for the transition. Hopkins said those are the sorts of issues the steering committee will have to address.

“I think we have to build in the potential for students to not work out and how we transition them back to the other schools,” Hopkins said at the meeting. “It may not be the right thing for some students.”
But those who do excel in the system could become trained in high-tech skills—an area where Americans have fallen behind those of some other nations. Pastelis said high-tech workers are in short supply in the United States.

“When Bill Gates a few years back went to the folks in D.C. and asked them to lift immigration quotas because he needed to hire more qualified folks with math and science and engineering backgrounds to keep Microsoft the world leader, that scared the hell out of me. And I think it should scare everyone,” he said.

Recent state cuts to education funding are not helping matters. The Seacoast School of Technology in Exeter, for example, is losing about $423,000 next year toward reimbursement of tuition costs. The cuts are aimed at helping to balance the state budget, but SAU 16 Superintendent Michael Morgan doesn’t think it makes sense to cut funds for a school that provides crucial job skills at a time when young people are already having trouble finding work.

“Those programs really provide very important work skills,” Morgan said.

Exeter does have two charter schools, the Great Bay eLearning Charter School and the Virtual Learning Academy Charter School, both of which are open to anyone in the state. Charter schools are similar to magnet schools, with the main difference being that magnet schools are run from within the district, while charter schools can be operated by a separate organization and are open to students outside the district.

Exeter also has an adult education program and collaborates with Great Bay Community College and Southern New Hampshire University. Morgan said he has not considered establishing a magnet school in the Exeter district.

“Here in Exeter, we already have a variety of alternatives for folks, and at this moment we’re not really looking at expanding,” he said.

Dover also has a charter school, the Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy, a college preparatory institute serving grades 9 to 12. Gary Tirone, the Dover school district’s director of curriculum, assessment and instruction, said the city has not considered the addition of a magnet school, although they have looked at establishing separate elementary schools for each grade level, which would make them all Title I schools and thereby make them eligible for extra federal funds to add services.

Elementary school might be a bit early for kids to learn high-tech engineering skills. But if Rochester’s Maple Street School proves successful, the model could spread to the middle and high school levels. That could mean adding a magnet component within the existing schools or establishing whole new facilities.

“I think it has the potential to give everyone some thoughts about how they can change schooling in all the schools we have,” Hopkins said.

Maple Street would likely extend its school year by starting a bit earlier and ending a bit later. The 200-day schedule would lengthen the year by about four weeks. That might not sound like much, but adding 20 days to the school year from kindergarten to grade five would amount to 120 extra days. If you extend that to middle school and high school, it would add 260 days of schooling, which is well over an extra year.

Patelis thinks it’s only a matter of time before all public schools in the United States extend their school years to at least 200 days.

“Within the next 20 years, the school year is going to be lengthened. It has to be,” he said. “I just think this school is common sense, and if the parents like it, it will work.”

In order for the school to open by next fall, a great deal of planning must take place in a relatively short amount of time. Hopkins said he hopes to use teachers from within the district rather than hiring new staff from the outside. The School Department will have to come to an agreement with the Rochester Federation of Teachers.

Even after the school has established a clear mission, things could change as the classes progress. Hopkins assured those at the focus group meeting the school would continually adapt to meet the needs of its students.

“Most magnet schools continue to evolve. They start with a mission and a vision, and they make adjustments as they go along,” he told the crowd at the Rochester Community Center. “We’ll always have to change and adjust, and it may not be the same five years after we start, because it’s really adjusting to the parents and students and finding out all the logistical issues we have to deal with and how it works.”