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New Hampshire

How a school-choice request in N.H. led to questions about state board’s authority – The Boston Globe

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How a school-choice request in N.H. led to questions about state board’s authority – The Boston Globe


“We didn’t want to do this,” Lempster Superintendent James M. Lewis said, “but this is the route we have available to us now.”

If the Lempster School District prevails, this dispute could help to clarify the limits of the state board’s authority, according to Barrett M. Christina, executive director of the New Hampshire School Boards Association.

And if the state’s legal team prevails?

“I think it would give the state board of education unfettered authority to overrule decisions made at the local level,” Christina said.

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Last fall, Leite asked the Lempster School District to sign a tuition contract with Mount Royal Academy, a Catholic school in nearby Sunapee. That way, high school students from Lempster — which doesn’t have a high school of its own — could opt to attend the private school at taxpayer expense.

The district already has contracts with a few public high schools in the area. Leite sought to add Mount Royal to the menu of options. That has been permissible since 2021, when state law was changed to allow districts that lack a public school for a particular grade level to approve tuition contracts with private religious schools.

As of last spring, a couple of students were already attending Mount Royal through such a tuition arrangement with the town of Croydon, according to headmaster Derek Tremblay.

Lempster’s school board met with Mount Royal representatives in January to discuss Leite’s request, but decided in February not to pursue the contract, according to school board meeting minutes. The board voiced concerns about the narrower scope of services that Mount Royal provides, particularly with regard to special education.

“After all consideration, the board said, ‘You know … it doesn’t match with what we’re looking for,’” Lewis said. “And the board has that right.”

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Leite, however, didn’t give up and filed the appeal.

The state scheduled hearings on the matter, but then the Lempster school board filed suit in April, claiming the state board has a pattern of asserting jurisdiction where it legally has none, forcing public schools to spend time and money on appellate processes that lack any basis in state law.

“Sometimes you have to say ‘no,’ and this is a situation where we’re not going to roll over,” Lewis said.

The presiding judge granted a preliminary injunction on July 30, with a ruling that suggests Lempster’s claims seem potentially persuasive.

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State claiming very broad authority

Lawyers in the attorney general’s office, who represent the state board, have refuted the Lempster School District’s allegations. They argue state lawmakers clearly intended the state board to supervise, manage, and direct local school districts. They cite a law that gives the state board jurisdiction over a range of appeals.

One of those lawyers, Rory S. Miller, argued in a court filing in May that the state board has “complete authority” to act when disputes arise between individuals and school districts unless state law offers a specific command to the contrary. That, he added, means the state board has the discretion to direct public schools to approve tuition agreements with private schools on an appeal-by-appeal basis.

But that argument drew a skeptical line of questioning from Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Daniel I. St. Hilaire during a July 31 hearing on a motion to dismiss Lempster’s lawsuit.

“How can they upend a decision by a local school board and force them to enter into a contract?” he asked. “I don’t understand that.”

Miller replied that local school boards are subordinate entities that must obey the state board’s edicts. That’s how it’s been in New Hampshire for more than a century, he said.

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St. Hilaire has yet to rule on the state’s motion to dismiss, but his order granting a preliminary injunction rebuffed key pieces of Miller’s case. He wrote that the Lempster School District can pursue contracts “in whatever way it wishes,” that the district was “under no obligation to comply with Leite’s request,” and that the attorney general’s office has cited laws that don’t actually give the state board authority to review this particular decision.

Christina, of the school boards association, said the state Board of Education clearly has legal authority to hear certain types of appeals, but the attorney general’s office is advancing an overbroad argument that would give the state board too much discretion.

Christina said the state board — all seven members were appointed by Republican Governor Chris Sununu and confirmed by the state’s five-member Executive Council — has taken an expansive view of its power in the past six or seven years. Members often seem to side with appellants just because they dislike what the local school board decided, he said.

“Anybody with any complaint seems to be getting their way, regardless of the merits or legalities of the case before the state board,” he said.

Andrew C. Cline, chairman of the state board, disputed that claim. He said the state board has ruled against parents several times because what they requested would have been inappropriate for the state board to impose.

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“The board cannot and does not exceed the authority given to it by statute, and we consult with legal counsel in every contested case between a parent and school district to make sure we do not exceed our granted authority,” he said in an email.

Cline noted that parties can file an appeal in court if they believe the state board has overstepped.

But the appellate process itself can put resource-constrained school districts in a tough spot, Christina said.

“They can appeal an unfavorable decision from the state Board of Education, but that’s time, effort, money,” he said.

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Religious discrimination not the crux

During the July 31 court hearing, Leite told the judge she assumes the Lempster school board’s refusal to ink a contract with a private religious school must be discriminatory and based on the board members’ personal beliefs.

But others said the school board members had asked questions and articulated concerns unrelated to Mount Royal’s religious affiliation.

“I don’t think the religion aspect had anything to do with it,” Superintendent Lewis told The Boston Globe.

Tremblay, the Mount Royal headmaster, said the Lempster school board members were “cordial” and “sincere” when he met with them in January.

“It seemed to me like they were asking all the questions that really mattered to them,” Tremblay told the Globe, “and I don’t remember religion being a dominating influence. … I don’t even remember the question being asked.”

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Leite, who has not granted the Globe’s interview requests, also told the judge she doesn’t believe it’s necessary for her family to pursue any alternative funding arrangement, such as by asking for a “manifest educational hardship” exception or tapping into the state’s “education freedom accounts” program.

“I am not looking for any handouts,” she said.

Under the EFA program, a family that earns up to 350 percent of the federal poverty level — that’s about $109,000 for a family of four — can use money the state would have spent on their child’s public school education to cover costs associated with private school or home-schooling. That EFA funding averaged $5,235 per student last year, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education.

Tuition for high school students at Mount Royal will be $10,700 this school year, Tremblay said.

Parents who send their children to Mount Royal do so knowing the school doesn’t have the same level of resources they could find at a government-run school, Tremblay added. The academy doesn’t have a school psychologist or specialists in speech or occupational therapy, he noted.

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“We will not be able to support as much as you could receive in a public school,” he said, “but we’re certainly willing to do everything we can.”

The dispute between the Lempster School District and the state board is happening as policymakers have debated whether and how to expand New Hampshire’s school-choice policies, while also grappling with court orders that deemed major components of the state’s overall school funding apparatus unconstitutional.

The leaders who voters select in November could bring big changes.

Sununu’s successor will decide who to appoint to the state board of education as incumbents finish their four-year terms.

Exactly how much power those appointees can wield over locally elected school officials could depend on how the courts decide Lempster’s case.

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Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.





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New Hampshire

NH Lottery Pick 3 Day, Pick 3 Evening winning numbers for April 19, 2026

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The New Hampshire Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at Sunday, April 19, 2026 results for each game:

Winning Pick 3 numbers from April 19 drawing

Day: 8-6-2

Evening: 8-8-9

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Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from April 19 drawing

Day: 7-6-9-2

Evening: 6-5-8-4

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

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When are the New Hampshire Lottery drawings held?

  • Powerball: 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
  • Pick 3, 4: 1:10 p.m. and 6:55 p.m. daily.
  • Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
  • Megabucks Plus: 7:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
  • Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily.
  • Gimme 5: 6:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.
  • Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. daily.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a New Hampshire managing editor. You can send feedback using this form.



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‘Not cosmetic’: NH lawmaker wants state to cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss – Concord Monitor

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‘Not cosmetic’: NH lawmaker wants state to cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss – Concord Monitor


Two years ago, Sue Prentiss got a sobering reality check at her doctor’s office. The news was blunt: She qualified for bariatric surgery, a procedure for patients whose weight poses life-threatening risks.

She was aware of her weight and had tried everything from high-intensity workouts to weight loss programs and diets. Nothing seemed to help until she started taking GLP-1 medications.

Prentiss said between then and now, she had lost almost 80 pounds. 

But at a $500 out-of-pocket monthly fee, every refill is a financial pinch.

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“I’m just getting by, but I’m so much healthier, and if this can work for me, think about everybody else’s life where this would impact,” said Prentiss, a state senator.

To keep up with the cost, she’s made hard choices like cutting back on retirement contributions and squeezing her budget wherever possible.

Sen. Sue Prentiss Credit: Courtesy

Now, Prentiss is sponsoring Senate Bill 455, which would require the state to provide GLP-1 medications under the state Medicaid plan as a treatment for people with obesity.

As of January, New Hampshire’s Medicaid program has ended coverage for GLP-1 drugs like Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound for weight loss. The state still covers the medications when they’re part of a treatment plan for other chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, certain cardiovascular diseases, severe sleep apnea and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (MASH).

According to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, the state paid managed care organizations $49.5 million to cover GLP-1 medications between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. The policy change in January reduced that cost to $41 million.

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With these drugs gaining popularity, the state estimated that if were to resume covering GLP-1s for weight loss, it would need to spend an additional $24.2 million on top of the $41 million per fiscal year.

Jonathan Ballard, chief medical officer at DHHS, said the agency opposes the bill, which would require Medicaid coverage for anyone with a body mass index above 30 seeking GLP-1 medications specifically for weight loss.

Ballard said the state cannot afford such an expansion when budgets are already tight.

“The department does not have this money today,” he said. “So, living within the realities of our current budget, there will be significant trade-offs. We will have to cut other things that are very important to the health and well-being of New Hampshire to pay for this unless there’s some change.”

GLP-1 drugs carry a steep price tag that puts significant pressure on state budgets, particularly within Medicaid programs. Several states, including California, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, have moved to drop coverage of these medications for weight loss.

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Prentiss initially drafted her legislation with private insurers in mind, but later pivoted to focus on Medicaid to serve more vulnerable populations. She is covered by commercial insurance and said the outcome of the bill will not personally affect her.

Lost coverage

GLP-1 medications mimic a natural hormone in the gut that helps regulate blood sugar, digestion and appetite.

Sarah Finn, section chief for obesity medicine at Dartmouth Health, said she has seen firsthand the impact on her patients after the state dropped Medicaid coverage for weight-loss GLP-1 drugs. 

Without access to these medications, patients experience increased hunger, cravings and persistent “food noise,” as their bodies attempt to return to a higher fat percentage, a process known as metabolic adaptation, she said.

“This is the reality of the state I’m in right now, where I don’t have options except bariatric surgery for my Medicaid patients and a lot of times patients don’t want to do a surgery,” said Finn, at a hearing for the bill on Wednesday. “What I have to tell that patient is there’s nothing I could do to advocate.”

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The Department of Health and Human Services faced a $51 million budget cut when the New Hampshire Legislature passed its biennial budget last year, forcing the department to reduce several services.

While Prentiss acknowledges the financial strain on the department, she wants the state to consider the long-term impact of using GLP-1s to prevent chronic conditions like diabetes, which is largely linked to weight gain and can drive up costs for the state over time.

“By driving down obesity, we can drive down the costs that are related to it,” she said. 

Prentiss remains on GLP-1 medications and said she feels much healthier than before.

She said that after a few months on the drugs, her blood sugar levels and kidney function began trending toward more normal ranges.

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“It’s not cosmetic,” she said. “Obesity is a medical condition.”



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New Hampshire grapples with nuclear waste storage – Valley News

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New Hampshire grapples with nuclear waste storage – Valley News


In New Hampshire and across New England, nuclear energy is in the spotlight. But as plans for the region’s nuclear future are charted, some of the big questions that stirred New Hampshire in the 1980s remain unanswered.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte has called for New Hampshire to embrace new nuclear technology, while state legislators have introduced multiple bills to promote its development. Then, last week, Ayotte joined the rest of New England’s governors in a bipartisan joint statement calling for the region to pursue advanced nuclear technologies while championing its two existing nuclear power plants.

There are timeline and economic questions about the implementation of emerging nuclear technologies. But front-end logistics aside, some say there’s a bigger and enduring problem: How will we safely handle nuclear waste, in New Hampshire and nationwide?

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A caution sign is shown on a road on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on June 2, 2022, in Richland, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

The spent fuel that nuclear reactors spit out is hot and remains dangerously radioactive for thousands of years. The U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 requires it be safeguarded and separate from nearby populations for at least 10,000 years. The law also requires the United States to come up with a national system to facilitate that at a centralized location, but no plan has yet emerged.

The matter is close at hand in New Hampshire, from the hilly west of the state, where a federal proposal for a deep nuclear waste storage site once threatened to displace residents, to the Seacoast, where spent fuel from the Seabrook Station power plant is generated and stored. To activists, just how we will handle the hazardous material is a hanging question that challenges the wisdom of embarking on a new nuclear era.

“There have been efforts over several decades here in New Hampshire to raise attention to this issue, but, obviously, we haven’t seen much real movement,” said Doug Bogen, executive director of the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League.

No stranger to nuclear waste

Three hundred or so million years ago, the long, fiery process that turned New Hampshire into the Granite State began. As magma seeped up into the crust from below and began to cool, seams of grainy, crystalline granite slowly formed.

The immense pockets of stone formed through this process are called plutons. When erosion washes away the sediments and soils around them, plutons can form mountains like the 3,155-foot Mount Cardigan. That peak is the crest of New Hampshire’s largest pluton: an approximately 60-mile long and 12-mile wide stretch of granite running through western New Hampshire.

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In the 1980s, this swath of stone attracted an unexpected visitor: the United States Department of Energy, searching for a site to excavate a long-term storage facility for the nation’s nuclear waste.

Spent fuel remains radioactive for several million years, but its radioactivity decreases with time. The period of “greatest concern,” where levels of radiation are more dangerous to humans, lasts about 10,000 years, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

So, to keep the waste contained over that period, the U.S. government plans to rely on a combination of engineering and favorable geology, according to Scott Burnell, senior public affairs officer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A long-term storage site is envisioned underground, because certain minerals can help shield radiation.

Granite is one such mineral. That’s what drew the department to western New Hampshire in the ’80s, Bogen recalled.

In 1986, the department announced that a 78-square-mile area on the pluton, centered around the town of Hillsborough, was one of a dozen sites across the country under consideration for a potential deep storage facility. Residents understood then that a number of surrounding towns would have been partially or entirely seized by the federal government through eminent domain to make way for the facility. Many were distraught.

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“There weren’t any Yankees that were going to take that,” said Paul Gunter, a founding member of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance.

The “Clams,” as well as the New Hampshire Radioactive Waste Information Network, which Gunter also co-founded; the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League; and other environmental groups, towns, and individuals mobilized quickly. In addition to organizing demonstrations, activists also circulated a warrant article opposing the generation and dumping of nuclear waste in New Hampshire. One hundred and thirty-seven towns ultimately voted to pass it, according to the New Hampshire Municipal Association.

Their opposition was multi-pronged, Gunter said. Organizers had health and safety concerns about the management of nuclear power and highly radioactive waste, including a lack of faith that the radiation would be safely isolated from human populations. They were also concerned about the proliferation of nuclear technology and the security risks that would come along with the transport of highly enriched nuclear fuel through their region. With some pacifist Quaker roots, the Clamshell Alliance also was, and remains, deeply opposed to nuclear weapons, Gunter said. They consider the matters of nuclear power and nuclear weapons inextricable.

News that New Hampshire was under consideration for a possible dump broke in January 1986. Later that year, the New Hampshire Legislature passed a law opposing the siting of such a dump in the state. When the Department of Energy dropped New Hampshire from its list, the storm seemed to have passed.

But while the Clams and others celebrated that, they continued to oppose the issue around which they had first come together: Seabrook Station nuclear power plant. At the time, then-Gov. John H. Sununu said he believed the two matters had to be considered separately. But Gunter said opposing the generation of nuclear waste went hand-in-hand with opposing its storage.

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To this day, he said, the issues are often discussed separately, allowing the threat of nuclear waste to take a backseat in discussions and planning around nuclear energy.

New Hampshire’s high-level radioactive waste act was quietly repealed in 2011, and a subsequent attempt by the late former Rep. Renny Cushing to reintroduce legislation on the topic, opposing the siting of a high-level waste facility in New Hampshire, was defeated in 2020.

Where we are now

Hillsborough’s story has echoes elsewhere across the country. The most progress toward a potential deep storage site occurred at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, where excavation took place, but the site was abandoned amid opposition from the state.

In broad strokes, a similar story has repeated in other instances where a site was proposed, Burnell said. But a spokesperson for the Department of Energy, the agency charged with finding a location, said their search continues nonetheless.

President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a new tack, framing the search for a waste facility along with potential new development as a search for a “nuclear lifecycle innovation campus.” The move comes as Trump has attempted to bolster the U.S. nuclear industry, calling for a surge in nuclear generation and development with multiple executive orders.

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“The Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses Initiative is a new effort to modernize the nation’s full nuclear fuel cycle,” a spokesperson for the department’s Office of Nuclear Energy said in an email. That would involve a federal-state partnership with funding for a nuclear technology facility where many stages of the process could be colocated, they said, naming fuel fabrication, enrichment, reprocessing, and “disposition of waste” as some of what would occur at such a site.

The deadline for states to submit “statements of interest” for hosting sites was April 1, and the spokesperson said “dozens” of responses had been filed. But they declined to say whether New Hampshire was among those, and the New Hampshire Department of Energy did not immediately respond to the same question.

In the meantime

Spent fuel generated at Seabrook Station is initially stored in 40-plus-foot-deep pools of water for preliminary cooling, then moved to steel-and-concrete casks, according to Burnell and NextEra spokesperson Lindsay Robertson. The concrete casks remain on-site on a concrete pad, Burnell said. Until another plan is developed, this is the case for spent fuel generated at reactors across the nation.

The storage facilities in use at Seabrook were tested and built to government standards, intended to withstand “extreme weather,” Robertson said. She declined to say how much spent fuel was generated or stored at Seabrook Station.

Since coming online in 1990, Seabrook Station has generated a significant portion of New England’s power without generating much news. Yet Gunter said his concerns about the station and storage of its spent fuel have not been ameliorated with the passage of time.

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“They’ve been affirmed,” he said.

Gunter has concerns about concrete degradation and wiring at Seabrook Station and other power plants nationwide. Regarding waste, Gunter and Bogen said they worry about sea level rise affecting the storage area; Seabrook Station is located adjacent to tidal marshland. And, lacking a national plan for more long-term storage of nuclear waste, they wonder what will happen to the material currently stored on a temporary basis at Seabrook if no such plan emerges.

Gunter said his concerns about nuclear waste are part and parcel to his overall opposition to nuclear power, including those generators already in use.

“The new reactors are still on paper. The real threat is really in the day-to-day operation of aging nuclear power plants that are way past their shelf life,” he said.

Nuclear power plants are expensive to construct, creating what Bogen called the “opportunity cost” of embracing them at the expense of other sources of power generation. He and Gunter see renewable energy, principally through offshore wind, as safer and faster to deploy, and were disappointed to see politicians renew their focus on nuclear energy.

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“It is coming back in a rebranding, which this industry is very well versed in,” Gunter said. “… Nuclear waste is going to be a persistent hazard over geological spans of time, while the electricity is going to be a fleeting benefit.”

Bogen said he wanted to see more reinforcement of the waste stored at Seabrook in a model called hardened on-site storage. But in terms of dealing with future waste, he and Gunter believe the best solution would be to stop generating it altogether.

“If you find yourself in a hole,” Bogen said, “the first thing you do is stop digging.”

Conversely, the New Hampshire Department of Energy does not see the question of nuclear waste as a barrier to further development in the state, according to an email from department Legislative Liaison Megan Stone. The nuclear roadmap that Ayotte’s March executive order directed the department to craft would include consideration of the “nuclear lifecycle,” including storage and “disposition” of waste, Stone said.

Then, she alluded to the expectation that a federal plan would emerge. “Dry cask storage is a safe and effective method of storing spent nuclear fuel until it is collected by the federal government,” she said.

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