After pushback from teachers, Concord Superintendent Kathleen Murphy withdrew a plan to combine the principal positions at Mill Brook and Broken Ground elementary schools next year.

“I received a lot of feedback from staff and other folks, and upon review of all that feedback, I felt that was not a proposal that was embraced,” Murphy said at a Concord School Board meeting Monday night. “Certainly — I think I’ve said this to you all before — my job is to bring you ideas. And I would be remiss if I didn’t make suggestions. Now, I get it, that not all my suggestions are going to be well received. But I do believe that that’s my responsibility.”

The district is now seeking a principal to lead Broken Ground School next year.

As part of the district’s ongoing budget discussions, Murphy had proposed that, with the retirement of Broken Ground’s principal this summer, the principal of Mill Brook lead both adjoined schools. While each building would have retained its own assistant principal, it would have meant that between Mill Brook’s grades K-2 and Broken Ground’s grades 3-5, almost 600 students would be under one top administrator. That’s about double the number of any other elementary school principal in the district.

Teachers at those two schools, and in Concord’s teachers union district-wide, vocally criticized the plan and Murphy for, they said, failing to sufficiently seek their input before pursuing the idea.

Murphy told the school board at a budget work meeting that the consolidation would both help align curricula and experience between district elementary schools and free up money for priorities like additional teachers. The position is budgeted for about $200,000 in salary and benefits, Business Administrator Jack Dunn said Monday.

Mill Brook and Broken Ground educators wrote to district leadership with concerns that consolidation would strain the closeness of families’ relationships with their school principal and was taking resources away from two schools during a period of acute need.

Murphy informed staff at the two elementary schools that she “acknowledged” the letters and feedback she had received and had reconsidered her proposal last Thursday. The job opening was posted that same day, and parents were informed in an email on March 4, according to Murphy’s office.

“Obviously, staff are relieved,” said Michael Macri, president of the Concord Education Association. In an internal survey, the union had overwhelmingly supported the idea of taking a vote of no confidence in Murphy over the proposal.

Amidst that relief, however, there remains “a bitter resentment about the process,” Macri said.

In letters to the school board, community members and school staff said the district should have taken public input on the idea much earlier and more openly before it became part of budget talks. When Murphy met with teachers earlier in February about the proposal, it came across to them as a near certainty despite their opposition, according to Macri. “Teachers want to be more involved in the decision-making process for decisions that affect them,” he said.

In public comments Monday night, a Mill Brook teacher laid out some of that bitterness for the board.

“The perception is that, those of us that are on the front line teaching, we’re the last ones to know about some of these decisions. And it feels like, at times, we’re just supposed to take it and keep moving on,” said Dawn Morris, who has been a teacher in the district for 35 years.

“I used to think that I worked with the Concord School District and administrators and central office,” Morris said. “And now I just feel like I work for you.”