Lea has always wanted to help people.

During her educational journey, the Lebanon High School senior has tried out different career pathways that would allow her to serve the community, ranging from cosmetology to elementary education.

But now, as Lea enters her final year of high school, she has landed on healthcare as her path forward.

“With healthcare, you can help such a wide variety of people,” Lea said, adding that her ultimate goal is to become a nurse anesthetist.

Lea, along with three classmates, will get a running start into the healthcare profession through a new program at LHS, developed through a partnership with Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital and River Valley Community College.

The four students make up the inaugural cohort of LEBMed, an Extended Learning Opportunity (ELO) that combines college-level instruction and hands-on experience to qualify students to become Licensed Nursing Assistants (LNAs) by the time they finish high school, all at no cost to them. A second cohort is planned for the Spring.

Career Pathways

The timing of the program couldn’t be more important. Across the nation, healthcare providers face persistent workforce shortages driven by an aging population, retirements, and growing demand for care.

At the same time, many students encounter financial, transportation, and educational barriers that make healthcare careers difficult to pursue. By removing those barriers and connecting high school students directly with college coursework, clinical experience and local employers, LEBMed expands access, strengthens regional workforce development, and creates new opportunities for students to build meaningful careers.

“We’re thinking about the longer-term pipeline for these students, as well,” said Paula Seaman, APD chief nursing officer. “It’s a great workforce development opportunity for APD, and for young students who live here in the Upper Valley and can potentially build their career here.”

The idea for LEBMed grew through collaboration among LHS Director of Curriculum Bonnie Robinson, ELO Coordinator Christian McDonald, Seaman at APD, River Valley Community College Workforce Development Coordinator Dan Osborn, and other leaders from their respective organizations.

Thanks to the generosity of local donors, the program is entirely free for students, including an online component through RVCC, testing fees for the LNA exam, and even the scrubs they will wear during clinical rotations at APD.

“This is something I wouldn’t have been able to pay for on my own, and the fact that the school is able to take that pressure off is huge,” Lea said.

The program launched this summer with a significant grant from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation and a $10,000 grant from Rotary Club of Lebanon Charities, the local philanthropic arm of the service organization. Recent Club President Marilyn Bedell helped champion the LEBMed initiative, recognizing its potential to strengthen the local healthcare workforce while expanding opportunities for Lebanon students.

LHS estimates the program will need approximately $70,000 per year to keep LEBMed operating at no cost to students. Though the partnership is still in its early stages, leaders hope to expand LEBMed to include other much-needed healthcare pathways, such as phlebotomy, emergency medical services, and radiologic technology.

Community members interested in learning more about the LEBMed program, tracking its future expansion, or making a donation to help keep the program entirely free for local students should contact Bonnie Robinson at brobinson@sau88.net.

Community Collaboration

LEBMed is the latest example of Lebanon High School’s innovative approach to Extended Learning Opportunities, built on the foundation of community collaboration.

The STEM Externship program, starting its 10th year, introduces students to technical careers in the Upper Valley and currently partners with five different local companies. Take Flight, a partnership with the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire in which students work with local volunteer mentors to build an airplane, is entering its third year.

Like LEBMed, Take Flight has been made possible in part through the generous support of Rotary Club of Lebanon Charities, reflecting the organization’s ongoing investment in innovative, career-connected learning opportunities for Lebanon students, as well as several other local donors.

“It feels so community-centered to have APD as such a cooperative partner, and support from RVCC, the Rotary Club of Lebanon, the Byrne Foundation, and hopefully others,” Robinson said. “I think the Upper Valley is in a unique position to have so many opportunities for our students.”

McDonald said LEBMed reflects the purpose of Extended Learning Opportunities: connecting students with authentic experiences while strengthening the communities they call home.

“When educational institutions, healthcare providers, and community organizations work together, everyone benefits,” she said. “Students gain meaningful experience, local employers develop their future workforce, and our community becomes stronger.”

Robinson noted that LEBMed also perfectly aligns with Lebanon High School’s Vision of a Graduate and Strategic Plan.

The Path Forward

The students in the first LEBMed cohort began the online component of the program through RVCC over the summer, completing 40 hours of instruction on the foundational theories that underpin the work to come.

That includes 24 hours of hands-on pre-clinical skills instruction with licensed instructors at APD, followed by 60 hours of clinical rotations at the hospital.

After completing these instructional hours, the students will be eligible to sit for the LNA exam by early 2027. By then, the second cohort of four students will start the program.

Once students earn their certification, they can begin working as LNAs. Program leaders envision some students starting work full time as LNAs as soon as they graduate high school. Others, like Lea, plan to work as LNAs while they pursue degrees in nursing or medicine.

“I think it’s a great opportunity,” Lea said, “and I’m so glad Lebanon has worked so hard to make it happen.”

~ Jack Rooney, Director of Communications and Community Relations, Lebanon School District

Kindergarteners in Donna Soucy’s class at Mount Lebanon Elementary School gathered in a semi-circle on the blue polka-dot rug at the front of the room, ready to read.

The topic on that midwinter Monday morning: the letter Q.

They started by thinking of some common words that contain Q, like quick and quit. Quest is another Q word, but one unfamiliar to some of the kindergarteners. So, Soucy asked them questions, and provided an example, to help them understand.

“Mrs. Soucy is on a quest to find the best bagels in the Upper Valley,” she said. Her students agreed that bagels are quite tasty.

Over the course of the 40-minute lesson, students practice everything from how to shape their mouth to make the Q sound (kw) to how to write it in both uppercase and lowercase — including where to start on the page, which way to push with their pencil, and which shapes the letter contains. They also learned a helpful way to remember the letter that always accompanies it: “Q and U, they stick like glue!”

Mount Lebanon Elementary School 1st grade Teacher Mary Skiffington, right, works with a group of students during small group literacy time.

A Transformative Approach To Reading

This is just a small glimpse into how the Lebanon School District has transformed its approach to literacy education over the past four years, leading to impressive results and strong, enthusiastic readers.

In the 2024-25 school year, the percentage of kindergarteners meeting literacy benchmarks soared from 44% to 89% over the course of the year. In the latest standardized test results from the winter NWEA assessments, all grades 1-4 are well above the 60th percentile for both growth and achievement in reading. That means Lebanon students are not only achieving above the national average for this time of year, but also beating the average growth percentile from fall to winter.

These strong results come as Lebanon’s public schools have adopted a Structured Literacy approach rooted in the “Science of Reading” — that is, research that shows the cognitive science behind literacy.

The lesson Soucy was teaching on the letter Q came from the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) Foundations program, a gold-standard, evidence-based program of explicit and systematic phonics instruction. In the early grades, students learn letter sounds and how to blend them into words using the UFLI (“you-fly”) program.

Students also read “decodable” books that match the phonics skills they are learning, so they can practice successfully and build confidence and fluency. Teachers have participated in ongoing training so they understand how children learn to read and how to teach those skills effectively.

“I was an early supporter of the UFLI program and really enjoy teaching reading with it,” Soucy said. “I noticed growth in my students’ reading and writing almost immediately. I appreciate how structured the program is because the kids understand the routine and know what to expect. At the same time, it’s flexible, allowing me to add my own touches and differentiate lessons so I can meet the needs of all my learners and keep them excited and engaged.”

Donna Soucy, center, helps two of her kindergarteners at Mount Lebanon Elementary School with a writing exercise.

A Student-Centered Approach

The team of four reading specialists at Hanover Street School, the district’s other elementary school, said the district-wide literacy curriculum provides a common language for all educators to work together to meet student needs.

“Whether you’re a classroom teacher or reading specialist, it’s all based on the Science of Reading, and it’s all working toward helping students learn more and provide them with more,” said Jeanne Akpan, a reading specialist at Hanover Street School. “And the students are always the focus. No matter where they’re at with reading, we will meet them there and we’re working to move them forward.”

This year, the Lebanon School District also introduced an additional reading program called Arts and Letters that helps students build background knowledge and expand their vocabulary through rich content and discussion.

In classrooms like Mary Skiffington’s 1st grade class at Mount Lebanon, students get an hour of Arts and Letters writing and comprehension lessons every day, along with small group literacy time when Skiffington can work with cohorts of students based on their specific needs.

Some 1st graders are still working on the fundamentals of reading, Skiffington said, while others are deepening their comprehension skills and having discussions about what’s happening in the books.

Classroom and school-wide libraries at Mount Lebanon and Hanover Street schools have a range of books for readers of all levels, and teachers constantly encourage students to take books home and read with their parents/guardians every night.

“Make sure you have new books for tonight!” Skiffington told her class as they wrapped up small group literacy time on a recent morning.

Together with families, teachers, reading specialists, and administrators, Lebanon’s district-wide effort is creating a community of confident, lifelong readers.

“Literacy expert Louisa Moats says that teaching a child to read is ‘rocket science,’ because it requires intentional, well-designed instruction grounded in a deep knowledge of how the brain learns to read,” said Karen DuBois, the district’s director of academics, engagement, and opportunity. “That understanding has shaped our approach. We’ve invested in teacher professional learning and high-quality instructional materials to ensure that every child has the best foundation for becoming a confident reader.”