The ConVal School Board took a moment of silence during Tuesday night’s meeting to remember a student and a former student who died in unrelated car accidents the weekend of Sept. 20. 

Damien Cronan, 17,  of Antrim, was a junior at ConVal. James Barna, 18, of Sharon, had previously been a student at ConVal. 

In the regular Points of Pride agenda item, interim Superintendent Ann Forrest praised the leadership of Principal Heather McKillop and the entire ConVal staff to respond to the tragedies. 

“This has been a very hard time for our community, for our students, and for our staff,” Forrest said.

Forrest said the high school had partnered with The Grapevine’s Avenue A Teen Center, Monadnock Community Hospital, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services disaster response team and Cold Springs Healing Paws to provide crisis response for both students and teachers. 

“I just want to thank our entire community for the kindness they have shown  our school.  We have had an outpouring of people asking how they can help our teachers and our students,” Forrest said. “We had people take off work to be here and bring the therapy dogs. We had people send lunch and for teachers and show they cared. We are truly grateful for this community.” 

Ryan Whitney, student representative to the School Board, said the students deeply appreciated the therapy dogs.

“The dogs really helped the students and the staff,” Whitney said. 

CTE, music room expenditures approved 

The ConVal School Board previously approved funds to extend architectural services for scheduled renovations to the high school’s Career and Technology Education center, as well as for repairs the music  and band room at the high school. 

According to ConVal Facilities Director Tim Grossi, the district put forth a request for proposals for an architectural and engineering study for renovations to the CTE, also known as the Applied Technology Center, in December 2022, and engaged Lavallee Brensinger Architects for the project. Grossi requested an additional $25,000 to move the project forward.

“These funds will go toward completing the design and engineering process of the project, including creating presentations and preparing visuals for the public in a series of three public forums, which will be set up by the architects, about the project. This is all preparation for a bond vote in March,” Grossi said. 

The board approved an additional $25,000 to be expended from the ConVal Building Capital Reserve Trust Fund for the ongoing CTE project. The board also approved an expenditure of $65, 997.42 for repairs to the high school music room, including the purchase of new storage cabinetry. 

“The music room cabinets are original to the construction of the structure in 1970. At the time I came up with the estimates for the renovations to this space, I did not realize what bad shape the band storage cabinets were in. Once they were emptied, we realized they can no longer be fixed,” Grossi said.

Renovations to the 1,500-square-foot ConVal music room include new LED lighting, replacing carpet squares, new cabinetry, painting the walls and sound-deadening measures to insulate surrounding classrooms.