The Bulletin week in review

Good morning, New Hampshire. As we arrive at the last Sunday of July, here’s a look back at the past week of Bulletin coverage and commentary. Thank you for reading, and enjoy the rest of the weekend. — Dana

By Ethan DeWitt

As New Hampshire public schools grapple with funding challenges, declining enrollments, and increasing fiscal scrutiny from voters, some metrics suggest that the schools continue to perform well nationally. But measuring a school’s success is a complicated task, where diverse metrics can tell competing stories. And this summer, a task force of school leaders is recommending that the state reevaluate that process. In a 61-page report released in June, the State Accountability System Task Force issued sweeping suggestions to overhaul how schools are assessed by the state, by building in new datapoints such as science testing scores and five-year graduation rates and providing more support to struggling districts through state funds and school-to-school “peer reviews." The goal, administrators say, is to move away from a system that incentivizes checking boxes and toward one that inspires improvements and collaboration.

By Molly Rains

According to Berlin Mayor Robert Cone, the fortune of the struggling former mill town once known as “Paper City” is on the upswing. “We’re slowly starting to stack some small wins,” he said. Recently, that has meant catching up on repairs and basic road maintenance, as well as securing federal funds to clean up a number of city-owned buildings and a massive, grant-funded effort to rebuild downtown infrastructure and streetscapes, a project Cone said the city is scheduled to break ground on next year. Yet that forward progress is not spread equally throughout the city. And one brownfield site, an unlined and derelict landfill known as Dummer Yard, is facing a particularly uncertain future after plans to build another landfill on the same parcel stalled this summer.

By Molly Rains

Every summer, New Hampshire’s seacoast draws visitors in droves, from sunbathing tourists to ravenous greenhead horseflies. Less expected are Atlantic puffins, which are rare in the state year-round and in summertime become so uncommon that a sighting triggers a statewide birdwatching alert. One such alert went out early this July, when a puffin was spotted near Rye’s Star Island.