Last year, the Stratham School Board approved once weekly police details at SMS. With the support and partnership of the Stratham Police Department and Chief King, those details have started. We wanted to ensure our families knew these were beginning, as we suspect you will see cruisers at the school more regularly.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 6:00pm in the SMS Learning Commons

*Monthly Stratham School Board meeting

Tuesday March 4, 2025 at 6:00pm in the SMS Cafeteria

*Stratham School District Town Meeting

*Residents vote on all Stratham School District Warrant Articles

*Stratham Memorial School Educators are providing childcare during this meeting

Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at SMS

*Voting

*Update after Stratham School Board Meeting on 1/15/25:

The board held a public hearing for the FY26 budget. The proposed budget is a 2% increase over last year, for a total of $15,526,374. The driving factors for change from last year include special education costs, curriculum resources, professional development for teachers, and English for speakers of other languages. We had many community members come to speak both in favor of the budget and requesting further cuts including reducing staff.

As part of its monthly series on education at SMS, the Board was briefed about student performance data, slides can be found here: 1/8/25 SMS Data Presentation

The Board was also briefed on the status of special education at SMS, the slides can be found here:1/8/25 Special Ed. Longitudinal Study 24-25 Students at SMS have dropped from 19% to 16% in the past five years because of highly customized and early interventions for students on the edge of needing services. State funding continues to decrease, leaving towns to make up the costs.

Some other important updates:

• The PFOAs water treatment will go out to bid in February and will start remediation this calendar year.

• A police detail has started again, with an officer present outside the school on random days/times.

• Public information sessions on the building bond were announced. These sessions include Careno Construction and the public will hear about the proposed improvements to SMS. See attached fliers or SMS website for more details.

For more, please see the full meeting minutes here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YS0zHTUQSnQRgnm0LU8pv0Wvzz7UcG87/view

For questions, email Board Chair Jennifer Scrafford at jscrafford@sau16.org. Our next board meeting will be Wednesday, February 12th at 6pm in the SMS learning commons/library.

Last week, families received the letter of notification regarding the winter administration of the BESS. If you misplaced the link to participate, please see below. We greatly appreciate your participation.

https://review360connect.com/Prod/STRATHAMSCHOOLDISTRICT/Parent

It's easy, just scan the QR code and you'll be brought directly to signup genius. It's a guaranteed blast.

The spring session starts soon. Check it out.
Sign Up For Skills Group!

Dear Families,

Get ready for a FUN evening this Friday, January 24th! The EHS Boys Basketball Boosters are hosting a fun-filled Youth Night during the varsity game against Bishop Guertin, and we can’t wait to see you there!

Event Highlights & Giveaways:

• Exeter Blue Hawks stickers & bracelets
• Collectible Varsity trading cards
• A special performance by the CMS Jazz Choir singing the National Anthem
• Chuck-a-Duck with exciting prizes
• 50/50 raffle for even more fun!
• A Blue Hawks t-shirt toss (get ready to catch!)
• Lindt Chocolate truffles – over 1,600 donated!
• VIP access to the Youth Section & Varsity handshake tunnel
• Post-game photo & autograph session with the Varsity players
• Delicious treats at our concession stand
• FREE admission for all kids!

We’d love for all players to come out in their team gear to show off their Blue Hawks pride!

The fun begins at 6 PM – don’t miss out on this exciting night of basketball and community spirit. We look forward to seeing you there!