Heather Robitaille for Merrimack School Board

04/11/2024

I just wanted to thank everyone for their support and encouragement! This was a very close race- we had 5,311 votes cast and I only lost by 120 votes. While it wasn’t the outcome I had hoped for, I am very proud of my campaign and humbled by the number of people who cast their votes for me. 💙

The work doesn’t end here though. As I said before, I am fully committed to advocating for our children and our schools. I am excited to serve on the Ethics Committee and will continue to show up and speak up at our local meetings. I encourage each of you to continue to attend meetings and share your voice so we can keep building momentum as a district and hold our school board and administration accountable for their decisions. I look forward to collaborating with our school board, administration and community members to continue to improve Merrimack’s schools.

04/10/2024

Before the results are announced, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support! I am humbled by how many people expressed their support and belief in me. Regardless of the outcome of the election, I am committed to advocating for our schools and our community. 💙

04/09/2024

It’s voting day!! Make sure you get out to vote and support our schools! 💙

04/06/2024

The third area that's critical to our district's success is Special Education. If elected to the school board, I will focusing on ensuring that our students on IEP's and 504 plans receive the proper supports and services to access their education.

SPECIAL EDUCATION
•A free and appropriate public education must be provided for ALL students. As a district, we must ensure that students on IEP's and 504 plans have the supports in place to help them access their education. No student should fall through the cracks regardless of how much or how little support they require.
•Investing in early intervention is critical to helping students become successful before they fall further behind, thus needing more costly interventions.
•Examine our Special Education staffing and contractors to determine if we have the proper support systems and specialists working with and for our district. We must identify and close any gaps in supports that are available in our district.
•Ensure that all laws and timeframes are being met by staff. Providing staff with the appropriate training to be familiar with Special Education laws and compliance is also critical to reducing costly legal fees. Families should not have to fight to receive data, communication or to have deadlines met by the district.

04/06/2024

Thank you to everyone who waved, honked or stopped by to talk with me while I was at the transfer station this morning! Also, a big thank you to Jim and the staff at the transfer station who helped us get set up safely!

04/05/2024

Another important area I want to address is:

HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATES

• As a district, we need to continue to build on literacy focus and early intervention. Improving reading scores will increase math scores and improve students' ability to learn and self-regulate.
• Continue to examine the district's overall curriculum to ensure it aligns with state standards and develops Merrimack's children to be future ready, whether that be a future in the trades, a career, college or service in our military.
• As a district, we must plan for and support enrichment to our gifted and talented students at all grade levels. Additionally, we must identify ways to stretch those students who are achieving above average levels, but not yet "identified" as gifted and talented. Every student should be able to achieve their highest educational potential. Providing these programs will reduce the risk of these students becoming bored or disengaged due to lack of academic challenges.
• We need to catch at risk students BEFORE high school. Students who become disengaged early on in school are at a much higher risk for dropping out, which limits their future opportunities and earning potential. To do this, we must focus on student support using a formal process to identify kids at risk by tracking using data, targeted interventions, our guidance counselors and programs with mentors/helpers.
• EVERY student should feel connected to and cared about by someone at school. This increase engagement and educational outcomes as well as decrease behaviors which negatively impact the learning process.
• Break down barriers for graduation by continuing programs such as Pathways, but also reduce any administrative obstacles by focusing on competencies, leveraging extended learning opportunities, assisting with makeup work, etc.

04/04/2024

I hope everyone is staying safe and warm during ths snow storm! I spent much of today out in the snow and working on a website, which I look forward to sharing with you later.

I wanted to take some time to share more details about my key priorities if elected to the school board. The first is:

COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION

• I believe it is important for the community to understand decisions made by the school board. During meetings, I would ask questions that would open a dialogue to help the community understand the information and thought processes involved in each decision.
• Before making changes to curriculum and/or programs, I would encourage the school board to solicit input from key stakeholders such as staff, students, and community members. This could be accomplished via surveys as well as ad hoc committees or focus groups.
• Communication should be seamless and easy for all our district's staff and families. An overarching intranet for internal district communications and consistent communication methods between schools and homes would make communicating easier and more effective for all parties.

04/01/2024

Last week, I had the opportunity to record a segment for Juanita Dangel's Merrimack TV spot, "Our Town, Our Government." I was excited to share more about myself and about the areas I will focus on if elected to the School Board. Over the next few days, I will share more details about each of these areas. They are:

-Community Communication & Collaboration

-High School Graduation Rates

-Special Education

-School District Budget

03/30/2024

Another incredibly important article on our School District ballot is Article 4- the MESSA Contract, which covers increased compensation for our support staff. While I was incredibly disappointed to see that the initial negotiations came to an impass, I am glad an agreement was reached during mediation. Our schools could NOT run without our support staff. Each of our custodians, food service workers, admins, Kindergarten Assistant Instructors (KIAs) and paraprofessionals are the heart and soul of our schools and they deserve to be paid competitively.

From a financial perspective, competitive wages for our support staff will enable our district to hire and retain permanent staff, therefore reducing our need to rely on costly contractors. Contractors are not only costly, but typically don't have the same vested interest in our schools and our students as our permanent support staff do. Investing in our support staff increases successful student outcomes and reducing our reliance on contracted work. These incredibly hard working Merrimack School District employees deserve our support and to earn a competitive living wage. On April 9th, join me in voting YES on Article 4.

03/28/2024

In addition to voting for school board candidates, there are many other important articles on our School District Ballot. One of those items is our district's operating budget. I ask that you join me in voting to approve the school district's operating budget so groups like our MHS FIRST Robotics Team, Chop Shop 166 can continue to do the incredible work they do as both a team and to benefit our community. Congratulations to Chop Shop on winning the FIRST Impact award last week and best of luck over the next few days at the NE FIRST UNH District Event!!

The Merrimack High School FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team, Chop Shop 166, competed at the Pine Tree Regional Event in Lewiston, ME, where they won the coveted FIRST Impact Award. The FIRST Impact Award “is the most prestigious award at FIRST, it honors the team that best represents a model f...

03/28/2024

My school board campaign signs are in! I’m excited to put them out over the next day or two. If you’d like me to put one in your yard, please let me know! I will take care of dropping them off and picking them up.

03/26/2024

A huge thank you to Matthew, Cadence, Nathan and the MHS Activism and Civic Engagement club for putting on this event for the school board candidates last night! As always, Merrimack TV did a fantastic job recording the session for those who were unable to attend.

I enjoyed having the opportunity to answer thoughtful the questions asked by our MHS students. If you or anyone else has questions about what I stand for as a candidate or why I am running, please reach out to me and I would be more than happy to answer them. This week, I will be sharing more details regarding the areas I would like to focus on if elected to the school board.

Last night's School Board Candidate Debate is in the app and that's also where you can watch tonight's MVD meeting live. The Merrimack TV app is in your devices app store, the same place you downloaded Netflix, HBO, and facebook. Just search "Merrimack TV" you'll see our logo, it's free, no additional login or subscription after you've downloaded and no ads. Enjoy!

We're also *still* on XFINITY channels 6, 8, 22, and HD1072.

🤩📺

03/24/2024

Here is the full video of the amendment and comments I made regarding article 7 at our School District Deliberative Session. For many years, I have been a vocal advocate for Merrimack's students, staff and schools. I am fully committed to ensuring ALL students in our district are able to reach their highest educational potential. Petitions like the one originally appearing in article 7 are detrimental to achieving that goal and have no place in Merrimack's schools.

Recorded by the Town of Merrimack's Media Division "Merrimack TV" Download the Merrimack TV app on iPhone, Android, iPad, Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire dev...

03/21/2024

03/16/2024

Here is a short video, courtesy of Merrimack TV with the amendments made to the articles appearing our school district ballot. This highlights the change in bond & interest amounts for the proposed SAU building as well as my amendment to article 7, which was approved by an overwhelming majority of voters at the session.

Political agendas do not belong in our schools and I will always stand up to ensure every child in our district gets the support and programming necessary for them to reach their highest educational potential. This is essential for our students in our Special Education through those our Gifted & Talented program.

03/13/2024

I'm excited to officially announce I am running for Merrimack School Board! I have been actively engaged in the Merrimack community for many years, actively advocating for our public schools. I would love to earn your vote on April 9th!