Moving forward!

Middle Village Chartered Public School now has a new logo, its own (all-new!) website, and its own blog, as well. These changes are symbolic of the shift from NHCIC's sponsorship of the school to the early stages of the school becoming an entity of its own. We are looking to appoint a board of trustees; eventually, they will pick up where we are leaving off. Thanks for reading, and we hope you stay in touch!

Middle Village School: Another Milestone Reached!

On Wednesday, December 10, 2008, NHCIC's Janet Carpenter and Diane St. Jean attended a hearing with the New Hampshire State Board of Education held at Nashua South High School's Career Center. We made a brief presentation on the mission of Middle Village School and answered questions. By a vote of 4 to 1, the Board voted to forward the charter on to the voters of Deerfield. We are pleased to have reached this important milestone in the process of opening a chartered public middle school (grades 6-8). The Deerfield School Board approved the charter and our proposed contract on September 10, and now with the State Board's approval, the voters of Deerfield will have the opportunity to ratify the agreement in March.

For parents who have expressed interest in the school, here are some highlights of Middle Village School's program:
• Classes will be multiage
• As much as possible, curriculum will be integrated
• Students will be engaged in authentic projects with actual audiences
• Students will be involved in environmental stewardship and community service
• In addition to traditional academic skills, students will develop skills needed to succeed in a world being changed by new media and technologies.

Middle Village School staff will seek 100% family involvement. Students will create individual learning plans with the guidance of their school advisor and their parents that will address all aspects of the whole child: the personal, the social, the physical, and the academic.

NHCIC has been Granted 501(c)(3) Status

The IRS has approved New Hampshire Center for Integrated Curriculum's application for federal non-profit status! This means that contributions to NHCIC are tax deductible, and that NHCIC is qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers, or gifts.

The application and responses to the IRS's follow-up questions took a good many hours, but the trustees are gratified to know that it was all worth it!

NHCIC will be returning to the Farmer's Market!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! NHCIC will be meeting and greeting visitors at the DEERFIELD FARMER'S MARKET on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3rd, from 3pm to 7pm. We will have activities for everyone, including the Saori loom and button making, and (of course) we will be answering your questions about the Middle Village School project. We'll have all the latest information available for you, so please come down and chat for a spell!

As we refine our plans, we will post further details on this blog. Check back often--a lot is happening now!

Signing the Contract!

Diane St. Jean and Larry Graykin of NHCIC join Deerfield school board members Kevin Webber, Bonnie Beaubien, and Kevin Barry as board chair John Harrington signs the Middle Village contract.


On September 10, members of the Deerfield School Board voted unanimously to approve the proposed contract and application for Middle Village School.

This is an exciting step forward for Middle Village School as NHCIC approaches the two-year mark in planning this innovative, chartered public middle school. The process of becoming a district-approved charter school in New Hampshire is a long one—but it is time well spent because the process helps assure a good fit for the community.

Now the contract and application will be reviewed by the NH Department of Education. If state approval is secured, Deerfield voters will have the final say in early 2009. Middle Village School could be open for the 2009-2010 school year!

Early September Update

Last week, NHCIC trustees met with Peter Warburton, Superintendent of School Administrative Unit 53, the SAU to which Deerfield belongs. He reviewed the legal aspects of the charter and discussed the need for a contract between the Deerfield school board and NHCIC.

Over the weekend, we put together an initial draft of a contract, using guidelines specified in state law. We emailed it to Mr. Warburton, and then he forwarded it to the SAU's attorneys.

Last night, we attended the school board meeting. We provided the members with updated copies of the charter (with mild revisions to clarify the separate roles of NHCIC and Middle Village School) and answered some questions.

State law indicates that the school board should make a final decision to approve or deny the charter by Sept. 15th. We are cautiously optimistic that this next hurdle will soon be jumped. If approved, the charter and contract go to the state for their approval.

We Are NHCIC

We are: (l. to r.) Larry Graykin, Janet Carpenter, Diane St. Jean, Sarah Flause, and Bill Millios.

Perhaps this should have been the first of our blog entries. If you’ve been reading our blog and wondering, “Just who are these NHCIC people?”—well, here we are, all together in one photo. (Thanks to Ron St. Jean Photography!)

Larry Graykin, Janet Carpenter, Diane St. Jean, and Sarah Flause are part of a team that piloted the first successful grade 6/7/8 multiage program in New Hampshire, at Barrington Middle School, in 2001. We have worked together on the same team since then, devising and implementing a broad variety of interdisciplinary units. New Hampshire filmmaker Bill Millios participated with our team in the 2005–06 school year in an intensive yearlong unit on digital filmmaking.

Our interests are diverse—filmmaking, photography, music, new media, nature, free-range chickens, kayaking, and travel—to name a few, but what binds us together in the venture called NHCIC, and in the creation of Middle Village School, is our respect for the curiosity and abilities of young adolescents and our vision for a new kind of school. Integrated curriculum tears down the walls between disciplines, or “subjects,” and turns “schooling” into real life learning experiences.

If this sounds good to you, join us in making Middle Village School a reality. E-mail: nhcic@comcast.net with your comments and questions.