When Pittsfield Superintendent Sandie MacDonald departs from the district at the end of the month, the school board won’t hire a replacement.
Instead, Pittsfield will pay the Concord School District $260,000 next year to assume responsibility over many of its administrative duties.
The unusual arrangement is virtually unheard of in the state, but Concord Superintendent Tim Herbert said it could become a blueprint for other small districts in the future.
“I do believe, as we continue to struggle with the revenues coming in for our state, that partnerships like this are going to be a more and more common thing across the state of New Hampshire,” Herbert said earlier this week, before Concord’s Board of Education approved the contract.
The agreement will require Concord’s school administrative office to provide more than 20 categories of services for Pittsfield, ranging from payroll processing to engaging in strategic planning.
Pittsfield will remain responsible for a variety of responsibilities, including facility maintenance, information technology and transportation. The principal of Pittsfield Middle High School will serve as the district’s superintendent designee, handling the additional administrative responsibilities.
MacDonald said the agreement will provide leadership stability to Pittsfield, which has had three permanent or interim superintendents in the past two years. MacDonald assumed leadership of the district last summer, following the discovery months earlier of a major financial deficit due to previous fiscal mismanagement. She announced in the spring that she would not return next school year.
“We believe this relationship will strengthen business operations, improve efficiencies and provide additional capacity that would be difficult for a district of our size to sustain independently,” MacDonald wrote in a statement.
Pittsfield has approximately 350 students in its schools this year, while Concord has approximately 3,750, according to enrollment figures from the Department of Education.
The three-year contract with Concord will cost Pittsfield $265,000 in the second year and $273,000 in the third. The two districts must engage in discussions about renewal by the fall of 2028.
Pittsfield’s two central administrative employees, MacDonald and Finance Manager Rheana Anderson, had annual salaries of $130,000 and $66,950 this school year, according to data from the Department of Education. Together, their salaries were $199,950.
Anderson will also not return next year.
Some members of Concord’s school board expressed concern about the district’s staff taking on the additional work.
Concord is in the midst of a major leadership transition: Herbert is in his first year as superintendent, and two new assistant superintendents will start next year. The district is also navigating financial challenges that led to the elimination of nearly 40 positions, including some in its central office.
“I would implore you not to bite off more than you can chew,” school board member Barb Higgins said.
Herbert acknowledged that the Pittsfield responsibilities would create some “pressure points,” particularly during the transition. He said Concord would hire additional employees as needed.
Concord plans to track the amount of time it is spending on Pittsfield-related tasks and prepare monthly reports, Herbert said.
Concord was also approached by other districts about the prospect of similar agreements this year, Herbert said. They ultimately opted to partner with Pittsfield but not the other districts because the two districts’ needs and capacities were in line with each other, Herbert said.
Both MacDonald and Herbert stressed that the partnership was not a merger or consolidation of the two districts. Pittsfield’s board will maintain authority over its schools.
Herbert did not respond to a question about the other school districts that had reached out.
The model that Pittsfield and Concord have settled upon most closely mirrors that of the relationship between the Middleton and Governor Wentworth school districts. Like Pittsfield, Middleton pays Governor Wentworth to perform its school administrative unit duties.
The state legislature contemplated, but ultimately opted against proceeding on, a bill this year that would have consolidated the state’s central administrative duties into 12 units — one per county and one each in Manchester and Nashua.
Republican lawmakers argued the centralization of administrative duties would defray costs, but opponents countered that it would lessen school board autonomy and ultimately prove ineffective at diminishing administrative work.
