Union Leader (New Hampshire)

MANCHESTER - Michael Ludwell gave himself a 2 percent pay raise this summer without the school board's authorization, a revelation that prompted his abrupt resignation Monday night, Mayor Frank Guinta said yesterday.

MANCHESTER - This year, 94 families representing 100 children have asked administrators to approve moving out of a school designated "in need of improvement" under No Child Left Behind.

New Hampshire students annually place at or near the top in the country on college entrance exam scores.

Manchester - A West High School freshman was escorted home with a 10-day suspension Monday for having a comb in school. Problem is, the comb resembles and has the spring action of a switchblade knife, and that flies in the face of the district's student conduct policy.

CANDIA - Parents of Henry Moore Elementary School children said they've seen a significant decrease in their children's nightly homework after raising concerns over the amount assigned to seventh- and eighth-graders.

Non-verbal until almost the age of 5, a New Hampshire boy discovered NASCAR, and wonderful things began to happen. Now 12, he visited some of his driver and crew-member friends yesterday at NHIS.

MANCHESTER - A city YMCA staffer has agreed to resign over a controversial middle-school field trip that included a stop at Planned Parenthood.

MANCHESTER – The city school board early this morning voted for an investigation into last week's field trip that brought middle school students to a Planned Parenthood office in Manchester. The school board instructed school administrators to investigate the matter, recommend any changes needed to school policies and decide if any disciplinary action needs to be taken.

BEDFORD - The opening of a new high school in Bedford has drawn applicants for teaching positions from across New Hampshire and throughout the country, according to figures provided to the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Giving up one of the first weekends of their summer, more than 100 Saint Anselm College students have signed up to be runners for CNN, gaining virtually unlimited access to the twin presidential debates among the Democrats on Sunday and the Republicans tonight.

CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch isn't saying much, but he isn't giving up on his months-long effort for a constitutional amendment to give state government more flexibility in funding education.

Durham - As part of the University of New Hampshire's Earth Day celebrations, students from nine fifth grade classes at the Oyster River Middle School and two classes at Oyster River High School, were participating in the "Green Up Durham" project.

Some parents are protesting the "sex" edition of the student newspaper at Winnacunnet High School. Several said they were especially offended by a photograph of two women kissing under the headline "Why men love women who love women," a quiz question about anal sex, and an interview with an unidentified custodian who said he had found a vibrator in the girls' shower.

RAYMOND - Students and administrators say they've seen a sharp decrease in student smoking after a youth group's effort to "kick butts" out of the high school. This week, a group of student volunteers, most part of the Youth Action group, began standing watch at a desk near two downstairs bathrooms reputed to be havens for smokers.

CONCORD - Two competing definitions of an adequate education will be debated today as the New Hampshire House starts a grueling two-day session.