Schoolchildren in a small town like Strafford grow up seeing a lot of the same faces.
Not so this year for The Newton School’s seventh- and eighth-graders, who returned to school in September to find not just new teachers and a new principal, but a whole new routine awaiting them, one that expands their peer group and opens up their options.
Every afternoon, Newton middle-schoolers now travel by bus to Thetford, where they join their Thetford Academy counterparts in enrichment classes, including language, music, art, cooking, design tech and outdoor learning. The new partnership, which is being piloted this year, aims to give The Newton School’s seventh- and eighth-graders a broader range of learning opportunities while allowing them to remain part of their own school community. Created last spring during a period of crisis that saw nine families pull their children from the K-8 school, the partnership also has helped stabilize enrollment and alleviate some of the concerns raised by community members about the culture and academic offerings at the middle school.
“This gives them more diverse choices … and I think they’re trying a lot of things that might not have been on their radar,” said Newton School’s interim Principal Tracy Thompson, who had joined her students on the grounds of Thetford Academy for their enrichment block last Wednesday afternoon and was watching, with Thetford Academy’s Head of School Carrie Brennan, as the newcomers blended into the stream of students crossing between buildings to their classes.
During the 90-minute block they spend at Thetford Academy, Newton’s 17 middle-schoolers take one French or Spanish class and one elective per quarter. They also can stay and participate in after-school sports, an option they could take advantage of in the past only if they had their own transportation.
To fund the new program, the School Board froze two part-time positions, for an art and a language teacher, that they typically find hard to fill, said Strafford School Board Chair Sarah Root. She said the program itself comes out as a wash from a budget perspective. The transportation costs are a new budget item, but Root believes the investment has more than paid for itself: After the Thetford partnership was announced, three or four students whose families had signed them up at other schools ended up staying at Newton, and one student who had been attending another school returned, she said. That translates to a higher average daily membership, which in turn draws down more state funding.
The partnership is also a win for Thetford, said Brennan, a Dartmouth College graduate who became head of school at Thetford in July, replacing Bill Bugg.
“I think it’s in the spirit of, how do schools maximize their resources?” Brennan said. “It’s also a great opportunity for us to expose the middle schoolers to our program here.”
Thetford Academy, an independent school, is the designated high school for Strafford residents, although parents may petition the School Board for a waiver to send a child to a different area high school. Thetford also has students from several other area towns that have school choice. Its enrollment hovers around 300, with about 75 in the middle school.
The afternoon enrichment classes represent learning opportunities well suited to middle schoolers because they offer hands-on learning, peer interaction, student choice and independent-but-well-structured experiences, Brennan added.
Coming to Thetford works well for Charlize Brown, 14, who has played sports there in the past, and for her parents, who no longer have to ferry her to practices from Strafford. The eighth-grader also likes the social aspect of the partnership and the opportunity to take new classes such as design tech, where she was making a wooden tool box last week.
“I love coming here,” Brown said.
Xander Waln, 14, also is taking design tech and is happy he gets to work with wood again, after developing an interest in it while attending Lebanon Middle School.
Thompson said she plans to seek feedback from all of the students later this month, after they’ve had a chance to get used to the new routine. “I haven’t had a lot of feedback yet, so I take that to mean things are going quite well,” she said.
Thompson was hired as interim principal last summer, following the resignation of Greg Bagnato, who had served as principal for six years, the last year of which was marked by unrest. After several families pulled their students from the K-8 school and community members repeatedly voiced concerns about the school culture, particularly in the middle school, the Strafford School Board hired an independent consultant to survey parents, teachers, students and community members about their perceptions of the school. That report revealed anxieties over disruptive behavior and a pervasive lack of respect in the middle school. It also found, to a lesser degree, concerns about the lack of activities such as music, sports and foreign language available to the students.
Around the same time, the board created a 10-person task force to explore two distinct options for the middle school: keeping and redesigning it or closing it and sending Strafford middle school students elsewhere. The task force is scheduled to present its final report to the Strafford School Board at its monthly meeting on Tuesday. It will not make a recommendation but will lay out its findings for each option.
Meanwhile, the school seems to be back on solid footing.
“I think there’s a feeling that we’ve hit a reset button,” said Thompson, who previously worked as a classroom teacher at Ottauquechee School then as a science teacher at Hartford Memorial Middle School before coming to Newton. “I think the climate is very settled now.”
Thompson said she’s been impressed so far by how well the staff has pulled the school through a difficult period. “They’re amazing people that work here, and they’re very willing to discuss things that may not have gone well in the past,” she said.
In addition to replacing Bagnato, who alluded to the challenges the school was facing in his resignation letter, the school replaced both of its middle school teachers. Both resigned voluntarily, said Thompson, who currently has a one-year contract with the school. The board has not yet launched a search for a permanent principal and may opt to keep Thompson in that role, Root said.
Root believes the change in staff, along with the new partnership, have had a positive impact,. “I want to be clear. I’m not pointing fingers at anyone,” she said. “Sometimes you just need new blood.”
Root cites a marked decline in the number of phone calls and emails she’s been receiving from parents this school year as evidence of a crisis averted. Still, she knows the future of the middle school remains uncertain.
“The board and community have huge decisions ahead of us,” she said.
Sarah Earle can be reached at searle@vnews.com or 603-727-3268