Last week, the Hooksett School Board voted to sign a ten-year contract with Pinkerton Academy that would eventually send most of its high school students to the Derry school. This new agreement may reignite a legal conflict between Hooksett and Manchester.
This past summer, Hooksett and Manchester agreed to bury the hatchet after several months of finger pointing triggered by teacher layoffs and large class sizes in Manchester high schools.
Hooksett, which doesn’t have its own high school, will no longer be required to send its students to Manchester at the end of the school year. But the settlement also calls for negotiations on a new contract.
Those talks may prove more difficult, since Hooksett school board officials voted last week to sign a different contract with Pinkerton Academy. This deal would require Hooksett to eventually send ninety percent of their high-schoolers to Pinkerton.
The plan still needs the approval of the residents who will vote on the matter in March.
For his part, Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas said the Hooksett, Pinkerton deal may be in violation of the Manchester settlement. Lawyers for the city are drafting a lawsuit. Hooksett lawyers dispute any conflict.
