From fourth grade all the way through high school, Russ Grazier, co-founder and CEO of the Portsmouth Music & Arts Center, learned under Muchemore as a student at the old Portsmouth Junior High and later Portsmouth High School. For about four decades, Grazier said, Muchemore, who taught at both schools, wrote all the music for the high school marching band himself. Every single piece of music he composed was specifically designed to cater to the strengths of each student in the ensemble at that point in time.
“He was just a very dynamic musician, a wonderful jazz musician,” Grazier said.
For years, Muchemore and Bill Elwell, another music teacher at Portsmouth High School, led the Clipper Marching Band in a regime that left a lasting impression on students like Grazier. When in the marching band, Grazier said he and his peers traveled with Muchemore and Elwell to Virginia and Washington D.C. for national competitions.
EXETER For the past 23 years, Jim Kaplan has been one of the hardest-working employees in Exeter Hospital’s cafeteria.
The 52-year-old arrives for a shift from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. five days a week, during which he clears and washes dishes. He can be a man of few words with strangers, but everyone at the hospital knows him.
“Whenever I’m at Exeter Hospital and see any doctor there, they always know Jim from the cafeteria,” his sister Lisa Press said. “My father joked once that more people know Jimmy than the CEO.”
When Jim was born with Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder characterized by mild-to-moderate intellectual disability, his mother Sue was determined to help him live as independently as possible. At the time, there were no schools for children with disabilities and she placed an ad in the Exeter News-Letter seeking other parents of children with challenges. Maureen Barrows, Jane McFarland, Mildred Wool and Sue Dillenbeck answered her call.
PORTSMOUTH Though he again received high praise from school officials across state lines, Portsmouth Superintendent of Schools Steve Zadravec’s third known bid for a Massachusetts-based superintendent position has again fallen short.
Zadravec lost out on his run at becoming the next superintendent of Amesbury schools Thursday evening. Elizabeth McAndrews, who had been serving as the district’s acting superintendent since last fall, was unanimously appointed the district’s next superintendent by the Amesbury School Committee.
Frank Tiano, superintendent of Uxbridge Public Schools, also in Massachusetts, was Amesbury’s third finalist candidate.
The Portsmouth school district announced Friday, April 16 the city’s School Board and Zadravec agreed to a one-year contract that would keep him as the district’s superintendent until June 2022. The Portsmouth School Board unanimously approved the contract on Monday, April 19.
PORTSMOUTH While they won’t get to break out their best dance moves this year, Portsmouth High School seniors will have a celebratory substitute for the annual prom next month.
In a springtime celebration switch, the PHS Class of 2021 will replace the prom with an outdoor senior banquet beneath a large tent on the grounds of Strawbery Banke Museum on Saturday, June 5.
Angela Hagstrom, co-president of the senior class, said the banquet will pose a lesser risk of COVID-19 transmission, as dancing is barred and all attendees must wear a facemask unless seated.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to have our previously planned junior prom due to the mandatory quarantine last spring,” she said. “This year, the main goal was to make our senior year as memorable as possible.”