Why Is Souhegan Going It Alone – Again?

Although SAU39 began working on a new strategic plan in April 2013, it still has not produced one well over a decade later. With no educational or financial guideposts in place, educational performance has varied, and spending has ballooned.

The primary roles of a school board are to create an educational vision, related goals, supporting budgets, and high-level policies in conjunction with the administration. The Amherst School District (ASD) Board and the Souhegan School Board have not created a cohesive educational vision or strategic goals.

The superintendent’s role is to achieve the goals set by the school board with the budget provided. To do this, he or she must choose an educational approach that best aligns with the types of goals established by the board, then shape and oversee a system of schools, program of studies, curricula, staffing levels, educational support services, and facilities to achieve those goals. Currently, such plans do not exist.

An educational vision and plan emerge systematically when school boards and administrations collaborate to address four key questions systematically:

1.     Why and how should we educate students to thrive in the 21^st century, and how will we know they (and we) are succeeding?

2.     Which of several possible educational philosophies and related academic models will best achieve those desired outcomes?

3.     What system of schools, program of studies, teaching styles, and staffing will best align with the chosen academic approach?

4.     What amount and types of educational spaces, supports, and technologies will be needed to underpin those efforts?

At ASD, the first three have gone unanswered, and too many people are focused on the fourth (facilities) without having clarity on the preceding questions. Souhegan, conversely, has drifted away from the progressive Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) model that underpinned its creation in the early '90's – and which ASD and Mont Vernon have steadfastly refused to adopt. This means SAU39 has been subjecting students two very different educational models over their public-school years.

What's also important to note is that the CES model, besides being costly, was an early-age educational model in which young students were taught "to learn how to learn" English, math, science, foreign language, etc. The vast majority of CES schools were early-grade schools. Most high schools that adopted the CES model did so primarily to provide continuity of learning, since the early-grade schools in their communities had adopted the CES approach.

What is puzzling is why the Souhegan Board is again pressing ahead to create its own strategic vision and plan instead of collaborating on a unified approach with Mont Vernon and ASD? Even more puzzling is why the superintendent suggested this fragmented approach rather than providing unifying leadership across the districts? Will we fail to understand history? Will we doom ourselves to repeat it?