Woodstock
“I now find myself in a time of transition as a professional and am writing to the board in order to provide you with the time to plan and navigate a leadership transition,” Peterson wrote in the Feb. 13 letter provided to the Valley News by Windsor Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Alice Thomason Worth on Friday. Peterson announced his decision to school staff at a meeting on Thursday afternoon.
Peterson’s most recent two-year contract will end on June 30, at which time he will be “pursuing other professional interests,” he wrote.
In his letter, Peterson highlights achievements such as redesigning the curriculum, implementing a one-to-one device initiative and helping students and their families in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.
“Good leaders know when to make change including when to step aside,” Worth said in an email on Friday. “Dana has been contemplating this move for some time and I respect his decision and decision-making. He has served the community well and always had the kids in the forefront.”
School Board member Dwight Doton said in an email on Friday that he appreciated Peterson’s years of service.
“Dana has improved the learning opportunities for the students in our middle school markedly over the past 18 years,” Doton wrote. “He has assembled a very competent and committed staff of educators who to a person, along with me will express respect for Dana’s commitment to his students and staff, and his integrity as a person.”
Longtime middle and high school language teacher Keri Bristow said in an email on Friday that she has enjoyed working with Peterson.
“I have always appreciated knowing that Dana Peterson is a person I can go to with any questions and find support,” said Bristow, who also is co-president of the Windsor Central Education Association. “He supports middle level education, and has always encouraged his staff to do their best on behalf of students. Dana cares deeply about teaching and learning and will be greatly missed by our staff.”
Peterson’s departure comes as the middle and high schools are experimenting with a proficiency-based grading system, which may eventually replace traditional letter grades with standards-based evaluations that indicate four levels: distinguished, proficient, approaching proficiency or beginning proficiency.
Some parents said Peterson fumbled the implementation of the new grading system in the middle school this fall. As a result, middle school parent Mark Lackley, of Woodstock, called for Peterson’s resignation in a Feb. 9 letter addressed to the School Board and to Worth.
“We are not against PBG,” wrote Lackley, who sits on a proficiency-based grading work group for the high school. “We are angry about the poor planning, the unintended consequences, the complete lack of communication and the fact that this was all completely unnecessary.”
As a result of the rollout of this grading system in the fall, “Dana Peterson has completely lost the confidence of the community,” Lackley wrote.
Peterson also came under fire last spring when he OK’d an assembly where female middle school teachers addressed the school’s seventh- and eighth-grade girls to discuss dress code violations.
“I offer an apology because I know that I misstepped,” he said during a subsequent public forum on the topic of the dress code last May. “Separating out the female population was a huge mistake. That was mine, and mine alone.”
In a phone interview on Friday evening, Peterson said neither the grading system nor the dress code discussions contributed to his decision to leave at the end of the year.
“This is a change that I’ve been considering for some time,” he said. “My conversations with Alice started much before any controversies.”
Peterson, a certified principal and superintendent who lives in Rutland Town, said he is exploring a variety of future possibilities, but declined to share details of his plans.
“I’m a private person,” he said.
As he reflected on his experience in Woodstock, he said it’s the people that really stand out.
“There is an exceptional wealth of knowledge,” he said. “There is such a focus on students and their development. … I’m proud to have had that experience and to have been an integral part.”
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
