Friend of Pittsfield’s Students,
Certainly, you share my concerns about the range of risks that threaten he wellness of the children and youth of our community; like me, you’ve read about the obesity, alcohol and drug misuse, and teen driving habits, for example; and while we’d prefer that these threats not impact our community, the fact is that they and other national trends do not exclude Pittsfield.
Last spring, the school district received a gift from anonymous donor through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation; the bulk of this donation helped us bring Chris Herren to Pittsfield to talk with students and community members about his struggles with substance abuse; this event was intended to raise awareness of this critical issue and to launch a community-wide effort to impact the negative factors confronted by today’s young people.
You are invited to an awareness meeting of a new community group to consider the risks, based on student responses to the latest available information from the youth risk behavior survey, and to consider Pittsfield’s priorities. This meeting will take place from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, in the PMHS library; I hope that you will consider joining us for this important event.
You are not asked to make any commitment to ongoing work, but I’m hoping that a core of interested community members will be interested in taking actions to support our children and youth.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with your questions prior to our meeting on November 12; I hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to serve our children and youth of Pittsfield.
Sincerely,
John Freeman
Superintendent of Schools