The Merrimack School District, SAU #26, includes three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Thornton's Ferry Elementary School, Reed's Ferry Elementary School and Mastricola Elementary School caters to grades one through five, including the recent addition of a kindergarten. The Merrimack Middle School maintains grades six through eight and Merrimack High School teaches students grades nine through twelve.
Elementary Schools (k-5)
Mastricola Elementary School
Kathi Custer, Principal
John Fabrizio, Assistant Principal
(603) 424-6218.
Reeds Ferry Elementary School
Frank Hoell, Principal
Kimberly Yarlott, Assistant Principal
(603) 424-6215
Thorntons Ferry Elementary School
Les Carter, Principal
Bridey Bellemare, Assistant Principal
(603) 889-1577
Merrimack Middle School (6-8)
Thomas C. Levesque, Principal
Colleen Welsh, Assistant Principal
(603)424-6289
Merrimack High School (9-12)
Kenneth Johnson, Principal
Peter Bergeron, Assistant Principal
Cheryl Smith, Assistant Principal
Richard Zampieri, Assistant Principal
(603) 424-6204
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Merrimack School System District Highlights
The Merrimack School District carried out extensive planning leading up to this year's public Kindergarten opening. A District Kindergarten Coordinator helped to research kindergarten models, identify best practices, and maintain open lines of communication with private area kindergartens and parents of incoming kindergarten students. She wrote a column entitled Kindergarten Korner, for local newspapers. She also served on a district planning committee, consisting of representatives from each elementary school and private kindergartens, school board members, and administrators. They met frequently throughout the year to plan curriculum, choose materials, carry out visits to other kindergartens, set up classrooms, organize open houses, and foster on-going conversations with the community. In addition, an administrative kindergarten committee met frequently to make decisions on transportation, budget, ordering of materials, and schedules. Aiming for consistency and continuity across the district, the Merrimack kindergarten teachers began meeting as a cohort in June, training in the selected programs, Everyday Math and Literacy Place and developing curriculum that will match district kindergarten philosophy and prepare students to be successful with elementary curriculum. This team will be meeting monthly throughout the year for further training and to develop assessment tools.
The Merrimack School District K-12 Math Curriculum is in its third year of implementation. Building on the 2004-2005 successful introduction of Everyday Math in grades one through four in the 2004-2005 school year, grades five and six will be fully engaged in Everyday Math this year. A thorough math textbook selection process identified the Glencoe series for grades seven through eight. Training and support for teachers and parents will be offered this year. Meanwhile, Merrimack High School will be researching and piloting new math textbooks to match the learning objectives of the standards-based district curriculum. Teachers from various levels will visit each other's classrooms to provide the smoother transition.
Educators across every level took the District In Need of Improvement designation very seriously as they worked through the Root Cause Analysis process to analyze weaknesses. This summer a team of twelve educators representing every building attended a week-long Habits of Professional Excellence (Hope) Institute in August where they worked with an expert in literacy to carry out deeper analysis and set priorities for a district improvement plan. Follow-up teams will research and develop a district-wide literacy plan, build an assessment program to track progress from kindergarten through grade twelve, and craft district documents articulating and highlighting the importance of reading in each student's educational experience. |
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Merrimack School Information 
