With the filing period opening to run for school board seats in Concord, two of the three incumbents aren’t sure if they will seek another term.
Brenda Hastings, a longtime former teacher at Broken Ground, has said for months that she wouldn’t run for a third, three-year term on the board. She’s now reconsidering.
Jessica Campbell, who works in banking and as a part-time SNHU professor, said she is on the fence because of work-related commitments.
Liz Boucher, a public health professional and parent from the West End, is set on running for a second term.
Hastings was nearly certain she wouldn’t run again, she told the Monitor, but began to change her mind.
She first ran for the board in 2020, straight out of retirement from her decades as an elementary school teacher. She wanted to bring that experience from the classroom into the boardroom, she said.
Six years later, “I no longer have that perspective, that insight,” she said.
Hastings also felt the strain of making difficult and controversial decisions about the middle school.
“I clearly understand that the community hasn’t been happy,” she said. “To have so many people so upset with you no matter what you do…it was a very heavy job for a while.”
Hastings is reconsidering filing for re-election, she said, because she sees value in her experience and tenure as a board member, especially with so much of that project left to complete.
“I couldn’t imagine how much I didn’t know when I started,” she said. “Now that I feel like I’ve learned things, now do I walk away?”
Hastings also noted that, because she came onto the board straight from the classroom, leaving would mean parting from her lifelong passion – children’s education – for the first time since she started working.
On a basic level, she said, “I’d miss it.”
There’s one board seat in each of Concord’s voting districts up for grabs on the board in November.
Hastings represents the board’s “Zone C,” which includes wards 8, 9 and 10. Put another way, she represents almost all of the city east of the Merrimack River.
Boucher, who is involved with volunteer efforts at Christa McAuliffe School, represents Zone B, comprised of wards 5, 6, and 7, also known as the South End and most of the west side of Concord.
“My kids still have a lot of time left in the Concord School District,” She said in a statement. “Now more than ever there is urgency to protect public education in the state of New Hampshire.”
Campbell, who has brought her experience with finance to the table, said this week she hasn’t decided yet whether she’ll be able to run for or serve another term for work reasons. She represents Zone A, or wards 1, 2, 3 and 4. This includes much of downtown and a central corridor of the city running north. It also includes the parts of northern Concord and Penacook that are not included in the Merrimack Valley School District.
An information night for potential candidates this week drew residents from each of the three zones.
A year ago, two board members stepped away, and the races to succeed them were largely uncontested, though an unsuccessful write-in bid materialized. Only Cara Meeker, of the South End, faced a closely fought race. She took home 58% of the vote after a campaign with the new middle school at its center.
Candidates can file at the SAU offices on Liberty Street from Sept. 4 through Sept. 14.
