Relevant Events

This page lists some of the relevant events that have happened or revolved around Alvirne over the years. If I'm missing a story that you think is important enough to add on here, please let me know and I will add it as a relevant event.

Fire at Alvirne

In the early morning of September 8, 1974, a fire burned down most of the original high school. When the fire was completely extinguished, teachers went in to salvage what they could. Students were sent to Hudson Memorial School for class for the 1974-75 school year, and Memorial students were sent to the empty St. Francis Xavier school in Nashua, which the Hudson School District rented out for that year. A year later, in September 1975, the current school building opened in the same location, and it mostly resembled the original high school.

Vocational Center

In the early 90s, Alvirne explored opening a vocational center as part of the school for area students. Unlike vocational schools in Massachusetts where students from an area go to one school for everything, students go to their respective high schools and travel to another high school's vocational program for the classes they're signed up for. In 1991, ground broke on the Wilbur Palmer vocational center, which was an addition to the high school. Alvirne students were fortunate enough that they could attend a school that had a vocational program on site. The Wilbur Palmer Vocational and Technical Center, later referred to as the CTE Center opened in September 1992, and the opening was attended by many dignitaries, including the School Board, Education Commissioner, and Governor Judd Gregg (who was running that same year in a competitive U.S. Senate race against John Rauh). The CTE center had many programs that would benefit the Town, such as a bank, a restaurant (Checkers), and the Little Broncos preschool, as well as forestry, building trades, health science, and marketing programs.

In March of 1993, the original barn burned down and was replaced with the barn that's there today.

Over the years, the CTE Center has seen various programs come and go. The bank closed in summer 2017, and the Little Broncos Preschool and horticulture programs closed at the end of the 2018-19 school year. Gateways Adult Day Services program opened in the early 2000s, and they are regularly assisted by the HOSA program.

Politics and Alvirne

Presidential candidates have made Alvirne a stop along the way for the New Hampshire primary. I don't believe a presidential nominee, however, has stopped at Alvirne for the general election campaign. Candidates that have made Alvirne a campaign stop include George W. Bush in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, Newt Gingrich in 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020. Out of those 5, Bush and Biden won the presidency later that year. Senator Jeanne Shaheen hosted a town hall event at Alvirne in 2011.

9/11 at Alvirne

The events of September 11, 2001 were a tragic day for the country. The events occurred on a Tuesday morning, in what would have been a regular Alvirne school day. As the events unfolded throughout the morning, word of those events started to spread around the student body (there were cell phones but without internet on them, and internet access was only available on the library computers or on teachers' PCs in the classrooms or offices). In the late morning, Mr. Lane made an announcement over the intercom. He told the student body about the events that had happened, and that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed. He urged all students to remain calm, but reality had started to sink in for students. A lot of them might have wondered, "was there anyone I knew who was on those planes or at the WTC or Pentagon? Are they ok?" I don't know how the rest of the day went, but I would like to hear what an Alvirne student or staff member's first hand account of what happened on 9/11 at Alvirne. I might post it on here or fill in some blanks that are in this event.

The 2002 yearbook references 9/11 and the events of that day. A question that was asked of some teachers in the yearbook was "What would you put in a time capsule?" Tom Daigle responded, "I would put a newspaper of the day of 9/11, so people will never forget the tragic events that took place that day".

October 18, 2013

On this day, there was a suspected gas leak at Alvirne. Students started reporting a smell of gas early in the morning throughout the halls, and by 3rd period, the fire alarms went off. Students were told to evacuate and were escorted to the baseball field, where each classroom has an area on the fence with the room number to assemble, at a safe distance away from the school. The students stayed there for about 90 minutes, before a decision was made to send students home for the rest of the day. Students were able to get their belongings in the building, and buses arrived. Students were excited that they got to go home for the rest of the day, but they were even more excited when Karen Bonney went out on the field with her megaphone and told everybody that Alvirne football was still on for that night. As officials continued to investigate the rest of the day, they discovered that it was something stored in a student's locker that was stained of gas that was causing the odor, not a leak.

Alvirne Renovations

In 2017, a town-wide effort was made to upgrade both the CTE center to state of the art standards as well as provide some upgrades to Alvirne itself. The CTE center was to have renovated and expanded areas for existing programs as well as new spaces for the relocation of programs held in the main building or in the former ag building. Original Alvirne renovation plans included relocated offices and improved security at an expanded Steck lobby, the rebuild of the cafeteria, a new gym, and a new performing arts center in the old gym, and redone parking areas. A group organized these efforts under "Renovations for Generations" to market it to the Town. Voters approved the CTE renovation package in 2018, and the state assisted in funding for this package. However, the main Alvirne renovation package narrowly failed (needed 60% of the vote) in 2018. Ren4Gen mobilized again to get this package done in 2019, and it narrowly failed again. A slightly scaled down version went to the voters in 2020 and it initially passed by 1 vote, but went to a recount and it failed after the recount. An even smaller package was presented to the voters for a 4th time in 2021, it failed outright.

In the meantime, the new and expanded CTE center broke ground in summer 2019, and is scheduled to open completely in fall 2021. New programs will include the Barnyard Cafe, replacing Checkers, an expanded Adult Services Center, the relocation of art and Project Lead the Way engineering programs from the main building to the CTE center, and expanded building trades, health, veterinary, and welding programs.

COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic upended a lot of people's lives at Alvirne. The class of 2020 had a different type of graduation and most of their senior events were eliminated or scaled back, and the class of 2021 didn't even really get to have the full experience of senior year, and athletics were eliminated during the spring, but returned for the 2020-2021 school year in a limited capacity (no fans). In March of 2020, as the pandemic started to get worse, schools across the country closed, and Alvirne closed as well. Students transitioned to remote learning, where they would check in with their teachers via video call.

For the 2020-2021 school year, a hybrid model of instruction was introduced, where half of the alphabet would go to school one day, and then go remote the other day. As vaccines started to arrive in winter and spring 2021, teachers were able to get vaccinated, and Governor Chris Sununu ordered schools to return to 5 day a week in person instruction. Alvirne students returned to an in-person mode of learning on May 3, after the April vacation. This would be the first time that a lot of students would get to see each other, as students with last names A-L would not get to see the M-Z students for most of that year.

It is anticipated that things will get back to normal at Alvirne for the 21-22 school year, as vaccines are becoming rapidly available and students 12 and older can get vaccinated over the summer. Hopefully, athletics return with fans and the senior class of 2022 can have a mostly regular senior year, with senior events, spirit week, and Video Night.