In school elections shaping up to be a referendum on the middle school project, two incumbents and four challengers are vying for three seats on the Concord School Board.

With the filing period now closed, the field has come into view. Board President Pamela Walsh and longtime member Barb Higgins are running while Bob Cotton, who is finishing his first term, said Monday that he has decided not to seek re-election. District parent of four Sarah Sadowski and Clint Cogswell, a veteran former board member and former principal, have joined the pool of challengers alongside Andrew Winters and Joe Scroggins. 

While the middle school project isn’t the only thing the challengers are running on, it’s a big part of why they all jumped into the race. 

Sadowski and her family of six, with four school-aged children, live on South Curtisville Road, directly across the street from the proposed site of the new school. Like both Scroggins and Winters, she said the way the current board has handled the middle school project is a big part of why she chose to run. 

But she has taken a more measured approach: She takes issue more with the way that the board has engaged with the public than with the fact that her preferred location, a rebuild at Rundlett, wasn’t chosen in December. 

“Even as a family that was really tuned into the middle school conversations, I still have process questions,” she said. “I think that we need to recognize that public trust is important, and the school district has autonomy that not all school districts have, and with that comes a responsibility to be really clear about the issues and their potential impacts.” 

Sadowski supports reopening the location debate, she said Tuesday. If that happened, “as a school board member, I will represent what the majority of Concord voters want,” she said. But she doesn’t feel like anyone really knows what that is right now. “There is an equity issue inherent in making decisions based on who can come out in the evening, and so what can we do to grow a majority opinion on this?”

Sadowski is a project director at the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability and a founder of Kids First Consulting, a group that has worked with the district on grant funding for preschool and WiFi hotspots for students during remote learning. She emphasized her candidacy is entirely separate from her career, pointing to her time on non-profit boards as proof of her commitment to public service and experience in finding solutions to tough issues. She’d use that experience to push for a “combination of quality education and reasonable tax rate.”

“I can write a good budget, and I know how to follow policies, and I know what policy implementation looks like,” she said. 

As a parent of four kids in district schools, the wife of a teacher in Manchester and the child of two teachers, Sadowski also said she brings deep lived experience to the board. With a child at each school level in Concord, she added, “We understand that not all learners learn the same way and that we need systems that support the diverse needs of learners.”

Sadowski is among those who signed a petition in favor of two proposed amendments to the school charter that will appear alongside her name on November ballots, but she no longer fully supports them and isn’t sure if she’ll vote for them in November.

“The charter amendment, I think, says a lot about where basic trust is in the district. We have to hear that, that has value,” she said. “But I understand the reasons why that puts us in a dangerous spot.”

Cogswell is no stranger to Concord schools, or to the middle school project: he was president of the board back when it first started looking into it. 

Cogswell was a principal at the former Kimball school for 26 years before he retired. He then served 10 years on the school board and has also been its treasurer. Cogswell served on both the 2012 and 2022 district charter commissions and sees its fiscal autonomy as a major asset. 

Controversy over the middle school decision has been a challenge to the board, and Cogswell thinks he could bring not only a knowledgeable and experienced hand but also an open mind to the debate. 

Cogswell is a defender of the benefits of the district’s fiscal autonomy — he saw firsthand how the flexibility to act quickly has saved the district money and headache, he said. While he doesn’t personally support the proposed charter amendments, he’ll largely take his cues about the school project from where voters land on them. He’s amenable to reviving the location question and he’s open-minded about where the new school should go — either could work, he said.

“I think we need to have the discussion again,” he said. “But if that passes, that's 60% of people that want us to relook at that issue and actually build it at Rundlett. I don't think there's anybody on the board that would overlook that happening.” 

Beyond the project, Cogswell sees changes in enrollment, current declines in class sizes and potential future growth as key challenges facing Concord. It could mean taking a hard look at payroll beyond classroom teachers to keep the budget in check.

“I don't know this for sure because I haven't been part of it for years, but it seems like staffing for other than classroom teachers has exploded, and it's just worth looking at to see what we can do there,” he said. 

While both Walsh and Higgins have filed to run for a second and fifth term, respectively, Cotton decided one term was enough. 

Cotton pointed to the time commitment of being on the board as a reason to step away. He also said he wants to let younger voices take the lead. 

“I'm 74 years old,” he said. “Running another term would mean being 77 when I came off the board.”

Pushback over the board’s decision to move the middle school to East Concord — something he voted for and has defended — has been frustrating, but he said it didn’t factor into his decision to step away. 

“Frankly, I think that the board has listened to the experts and tried to involve the community,” Cotton said. “I don't want to in any way imply that I'm not supportive of the positions that the board has taken in the past.”

He’ll be voting against the charter amendments, he noted.

“Concord is sorely in need of a new middle school, and so hopefully it won't slow things down.” 

The campaign missions of incumbents Walsh and Higgins will be explored in future coverage.

 Previously, when stating why she’d run again, Walsh said that “We still have work to do, bringing in a new math curriculum, expanding world language and, of course, working on plans to build a new middle school.” 

Those who wish to reverse the board’s location decision will have two different avenues to pursue that on the ballot. Supporting the charter amendments will mean permanently chipping away some of the board’s autonomous power, putting  more oversight directly in the hands of the voting public. Suppor  ting candidates who would push for the board to go back on its plans is another way. 

With the presidential race driving turnout, the outcome of both races will give the widest window yet into what voters district-wide actually want in a new school. 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com