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Harris Center describes long-running ConVal partnership; district pays one-third of school-program costs
Summary
Representatives from the Harris Center outlined a decades-long place-based education partnership with ConVal schools that serves about 1,400 students annually and noted the district pays one-third of program costs while the center raises the remaining two-thirds.
Staff from the Harris Center for Conservation Education told the Contoocook Valley School District board that their school programs bring teacher-naturalists into classrooms and school neighborhoods year-round and that the partnership dates to 1972.
"Every year in ConVal, we work with more than 1,400 ConVal students," said Jenna Spear, identified as the school's program manager and teacher naturalist. Spear and Karen Rent, also a teacher naturalist, told the board the Harris Center supports about 90 ConVal classes each year, averaging roughly six contact hours per classroom annually.
The presenters described curricular ties to Next Generation Science Standards and hands-on units including amphibian and macroinvertebrate studies, bird migration work and place-based mapping. They also outlined the center’s equipment and resources—pinned insect collections, binoculars, terraria, macroinvertebrate sampling gear and loaner head nets—that schools typically cannot maintain in-house.
Funding was a central point. Harris Center representatives said ConVal pays one-third of the cost of the school programs; the center covers the other two-thirds through business partnerships, donations and grants so that all students can participate. The center also runs free, grant-funded after-school programs such as Yeti Club and Lab Girls and is expanding community offerings like the Acorn after-school newspaper project that has taken place at local libraries.
Board members asked about program length and participation. Harris Center staff said after-school programs vary in length and size by offering and site; Yeti Club and Lab Girls rotate locations and attendance can fluctuate with extracurricular sports schedules. Presenters said teacher professional-development workshops are available and that many ConVal teachers incorporate Harris Center units repeatedly over multiple years.
The board did not vote on funding for the Harris Center during the meeting; presenters left materials and videos for the board to review.
