Higgins: A Year In Review And What Comes Next

The following is a letter submitted to Concord NH Patch from Concord School District Board of Education member Barbara Higgins:

A year ago, I was anticipating 2024 to be my final year on the Concord School District Board of Education.

I hoped to be president, as it is the one office I have not held. I hoped to leave some sort of legacy other than having completed four terms.

This was not to be the case.

I can’t say that I am disappointed at how everything played out, as there have been some good moments on the board. There have also been many rough moments.

The amount of presumptuous behavior and entitled expectation that seemed to permeate meetings through the actions of some board members was difficult to watch. I often felt like a group of new people had moved into my neighborhood and when I invited them to my house for dinner, they felt that changing the menu and resetting the table was appropriate behavior.

A simple analogy, I know, but many long time Concord residents, district employees, and taxpayers know exactly what I am talking about.

The biggest accomplishment of the school board in 2024? Facilitating the beginning of the dismantling of a charter that has governed the school board for decades.

Well, to be clear, it was the legislature that governed the process of our school board for generations. A couple of decades ago a charter was created, and then recently revised. The revision actually made it harder to change that the previous version.

(It happened though! The voters spoke their mind!) The collective cheer of much of the community was not hard to hear.

In a year fraught with all the middle school issues, there was a lot of other work that the board was tasked with doing.

The Communications and Policy Committee, which I have loved being a part of, has been rewriting decades-old policies and keeping up with the changes that come with new laws from the government. The expected changes coming along in Title IX will potentially keep this committee very engaged. What I lack in managing the minute dissection of the words and punctuation that occur in policy re-writes, I add with my ability to apply the proposed policies in a practical manner. I am an educator, I have a sense of life in a school building.

Several exciting programs and changes are happening in Curriculum and Instruction in our district. We have a core group of educators (of all levels) committed to keeping what our children learn meaningful, relevant, and current. The Instructional Committee oversees many of these changes. As a teacher I have loved my time on this committee. I have been a member of it, and chair of it for a spell, every year I have been on the board. The hardest part of this past year in terms of this committee is how no other board members tend to come to the meetings. Some committees are well attended by other board members. Not so the instructional committee. We are not a board of educators it seems.

While the City and Community Relations Committee was, for a long time, just a twice a year check in between Tom Aspell and the board, it is now a much more invested committee working on several initiatives that affect both the city government and school board. Memorial Field and other shared athletic spaces will take up a lot of energy on this committee. Also, Parks and Recreation and our Elementary School Programs often work together.

I relinquished my chairperson role on the Instructional Committee to Brenda Hastings three years ago at the request of Kathleen Murphy. I took over the Capital Facilities Committee for two years and was then removed by Pam Walsh. She wanted that committee to “go in a different direction”. Now that the year is over, I am glad I was not at the helm. This year it was all about the middle school, both the new one and the status of the existing one.

This committee does a lot more than tear down beautiful elementary schools and let buildings fall into states of disrepair, it oversees all the property in our district, schools, bus depots, homes, empty lots. (Although this committee, at one point, facilitated the purchase of an entire historic neighborhood of beautiful homes built in the 1800s. They were allowed to be let go, of course, and then demolished. There is a parking lot and substandard playground there now).

It will be interesting to see where it goes this year. I am hoping to chair it again. I think it would go a long way in rebuilding trust within the community. Despite my harsh words, our facilities manager works hard to provide quality spaces for our students and staff.

The Finance Committee will once again manage the money. It is what they do! This is my least favorite committee to be a part of because my brain does not think in base ten. There are those who excel on this committee. They are the ones with an eye for detail and great visual memory.

Finally, the Negotiations Committee. As a former educator in the district, I stay away from this committee. I will sometimes sit in on meetings, but it is hard to hear some of the negativity that can invade negotiations. This is from both sides.

Concord remains a district that attracts people to our town. We have amazing teachers and programs. Our athletics and music/theater programs are among the best in the state. We boast support staff that truly know what I means to support children.

So, what are my hopes and dreams for my next term on the board?

Well, this year I want to be a part of navigating our community through the charter changes and the likelihood of a rebuild/remodel/rethink at the Rundlett site.

I hope to be a continued support to our teachers and staff and to be sure their voices are heard at the administrative and board levels.

I look forward to being the part of the policy committee that asks the big picture questions and practical application questions after those with “fabulous language skills” have managed the terminology, word order, periods etc.

I relish the chance to bring the four decades of the regular use of Memorial Field under my belt to the conversation and planning of our new athletic and community facility.

But mostly, I look forward to continuing to advocate for those in our district and community who often do not feel heard or listened to when they speak. I will seek input constantly from our community members and district staff.

And a year from now, when I will be in the middle of my fifth term on the board, I will hope to be given the opportunity to lead the board as president. This will, of course, require my fellow board members to vote for me. Given past practice, I am not sure I will ever get this chance.

Life is funny sometimes, and being on a board is always unpredictable. I both look forward to, and dread, seeing how it all plays out.

Barbara Higgins is a long-time education, a native of Concord, and the longest-serving SAU 8 board of education member. She won reelection for one of three at-large seats on Nov. 5, 2024, receiving the most votes of all six candidates.