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School Board Candidate Jenna Hardy
| Name: | Jenna Hardy 
|
| Office: | School Board |
| Term of Office: | 3 |
| Years Resident: | 40+ |
| Contact Info: | scjchardy3@gmail.com; 603-682-9696 |
| Website: | https://www.facebook.com/groups/2489673927994190 |
| Offices/Community Involvement: | Merrimack School District Volunteer (multiple, various capacities) 2007-present; Merrimack School District Budget Committee (June 2020-October 2020); Merrimack School Board (October 2020-Present), Merrimack TV Volunteer (Fall 2020) |
| Why am I Running: | As a parent, an educator, a long-term Merrimack School District volunteer and former Merrimack Title 1 and Substitute Teacher, I have years of experience from multiple perspectives within this district. I believe my education and experience uniquely positions me to be able to represent all stakeholders on the school board as we work together to achieve academic excellence and build a thriving, inclusive school community. |
| What do you plan on accomplishing while in Office: |
I hope to provide consistent, decisive, student-focused leadership to help our school community emerge strong from this Covid crisis. As we emerge, my focus will be on how our district will assess and address any gaps in learning that were the result of interrupted instruction during the Covid crisis. In addition, our district needs to guarantee an appropriate challenge for every student. Adequate education is not enough. We need to explore creative, innovative ways to give all students of all abilities both the support and challenge they need so their skills and abilities grow and thrive. This requires continuing to offer excellent special education services, but also the creation of a real, robust program for advanced students and the expansion of trade programs and extended learning opportunities for everyone in between. Teachers are experts at differentiation and highly motivated to meet each student where they are at. As a school board and an administration, we need to give teachers the freedom and support to think and problem-solve creatively about how to meet the needs of all students in their classroom for our district to achieve excellence. |
| Candidate Statement: | As a lifelong Merrimack resident, my sisters and I were educated here, my kids are being educated here, and I started my teaching career here. Being a parent of 4 children (grades 12, 9, 8 and 2), I have a long-term, personal investment in and commitment to our success as a district. Because my children have gone through every school in this district except MES, I'm also VERY aware of the areas where we are falling short and I want to work to address those areas. I'm a sports parent, a band parent, a theater parent, a robotics parent, a parent of a child on an IEP, and probably more I am forgetting. Having 4 kids has allowed me VAST experience throughout this district to see where we are succeeding and where we need improvement. In addition, I am an educator. I started my career right here in the Merrimack School District . After that I taught 4th/5th grade (looping) in Windham. During that time, I also earned my Master's Degree in Education. I started back to teaching this year - this time kindergarten! So, I understand the unique challenges of teachers and schools during this unprecedented time. Having been only appointed to the School Board in October 2020, my time on the board thus far has been far too short to make any progress on many of the areas of concern that I have had for years, because our focus (of course) has been navigating the Covid crisis. I hope to have more time moving forward on the board to help our district emerge from this current crisis, mitigate it's effects, and get to the hard work of improving our district. During my time on the school board, I have worked hard to listen, do research, and make the best, most balanced decision I could with the information I had for each vote. I'm proud of many of the things I did throughout my short time as a school board member to put students first, but most of all advocating and voting for a full-time return of K-4 students in the third trimester, a full and timely return for grades 5-12, and ensuring that sports- which are critical for the mental health of students- moved forward each season with appropriate safety precautions. My desire to serve on the school board is to help meet the needs I have seen and experienced during my 13 + years of being a parent of Merrimack students. I think that experience, plus my experience as an educator, uniquely positions me to help Merrimack navigate and emerge from this Covid crisis and start the hard work of addressing the impact it has had on students while pursuing long-term excellence district-wide. |
| School District Articles Below were questions asked of the candidates running for School District Positions |
|
| Article 2 Accept Gifts: |
Yes |
| Comments | |
| Article 3 Support Contract |
Yes |
| Comments | As a School Board member on the MESSA negotiation team, I fully support this contract. Our district support staff are critical in the implementation of our educational goals in our district, and it is important that we continue to offer competitive salary and benefits so we can attract and retain the best possible support staff to our district. |
| Article 4 Spec. Mtg A3: |
Yes |
| Comments | Approval for this warrant is important in the event that Article 3 does not pass. |
| Article 5 Ventilators |
Yes |
| Comments | This article allows for the remediation of the ventilation issues in the Merrimack school district in full as quickly as possible. In addition, it was the lowest cost option to remediate the situation in full. With ongoing concerns about Covid and a responsibility to provide a safe and healthy educational environment, I support this warrant article. |
| Article 6 Disband Budget Committee |
No |
| Comments | The budget committee is an oversight committee for the school district budget. They provide an extra layer of transparency to the community, and its members are elected to keep the school district budget accountable to the taxpayers. We should not remove ANY level of oversight, or accountability to the budget by taxpayers. I invite and encourage the maximum transparency and accountability in the budget process so taxpayers know how their tax dollars are being utilized. |
| Article 7 Budget |
Yes |
| Comments | During this year when finances have been difficult for many taxpayers, this budget was diligently crafted by school district leaders to keep as many areas level set as possible. This budget allows our district to meet the educational needs of students while giving consideration to the tax impact on the community. |
| School District Non Ballot Questions Below were questions asked of all candidates |
|
| Question 1 |
What is your stance on travel and quarantine policy? Do we make up our own school
policy or do we follow what the CDC and DHHS has a current policy and keep up to date
with them.
|
| Response: | This issue is still a little bit challenging, because the CDC's recommendation and our state recommendation are currently different. District leaders are not epidemiologists. As a result, I lean towards following the New Hampshire DHHS guidelines, as state epidemiologists have the best picture of our current Covid landscape here in NH and have designed their recommendations accordingly. |
| Question 2 |
What is your stance on continuing the REAL academy for those who cannot safely
return to school or choose not to until there is a vaccine for children.
|
| Response: | Until children are able to be fully vaccinated, I support the continuation of the REAL Academy. Many students have thrived being able to learn remotely, and it is imperative that as long as COVID is a threat that we provide a safe, educationally rigorous option for students who are not comfortable or safe in a full in-person model. During this time, we should also do a cost-benefit analysis in regards to keeping the REAL academy moving forward beyond COVID. There may be excellent reasons why a remote branch of our school district might be beneficial to many different types of students outside of a pandemic situation that are worth exploring. |
| Question 3 |
What is the role of the School Board and what differences do you see with their role
versus the role of administration?
|
| Response: | The role of the School Board is to ensure that everything that happens within a school district puts students first and prioritizes student achievement. The School Board's job is not to run the day-to-day affairs of the school district. That is the administration's job. However, the board is responsible to oversee and evaluate the administration in that process ensuring that student well-being and achievement are always the focus. |
| Question 4 |
What are your thoughts about full-day kindergarten?
|
| Response: | I fully support full day kindergarten. An excellent education begins at the foundation. Truly, the beginnings of addressing concerning graduation rates starts in kindergarten with engaging students in the learning process and building foundational math and literacy skills that all future grades can build upon. Having had children who attended both full and half-day kindergarten here in Merrimack, I have to say that full-day kindergarten was a difference-maker. |
| Question 5 |
What are your thoughts on college and career readiness?
|
| Response: | Many of my thoughts about how we best prepare students for the real world in 2020 are outlined in my answers to the questions below in regards to trade and extended learning opportunities. In thinking about college and career readiness, I immediately reflect on my own experience as the parent of a Senior. I have felt as though Merrimack High School has played a passive role in helping my child understand and explore his post-high school options and navigate the college search process. Much of the responsibility of helping him navigate the process successfully fell on myself and my husband. There were MANY times during the process that I wondered what happened to students who did not have the same level of support or guidance at home. I think one huge area of improvement we could make at MHS would be creating college and career seminars (or something similar) part of the natural rhythm of high school life beginning in freshman year. Creating, maybe, a day each quarter or semester to have "College or Career" day in which we pause from the normal routines of high school to help students understand the steps they can be taking NOW to prepare for the next steps would be something really unique that would set MHS apart. Not only is enhancing education a key to increasing our graduation rate, but improving our ability to help students (and parents) see the myriad future opportunities, evaluate them and navigate the choice process is key in their success as well. We need to do a better job of partnering with students and parents in this process. |
| Question 6 |
What are your thoughts on Vocational programs and how would you improve the
programs what we have now?
|
| Response: | Vocational programs are a critical part of any high school's or school districts success. Education is not "one size fits all." When students reach high school, we need to offer multiple, flexible paths to graduation for students who have different goals and different strengths. Merrimack High School's partnerships with Hudson and Nashua School Districts to offer MHS students Career and Technical programs are an important part of meeting the need of students who have interests and talents for the various industries represented within those programs. These opportunities are CRITICAL options for students who have gifts and abilities that may not shine as readily in a traditional classroom or high school graduation track. Students who might otherwise lose interest in school can be engaged in these Career and Technical programs to explore ways that their talents intersect with multiple careers in various industries. Always expanding these opportunities for students is KEY to improving our graduation rate. These partnerships need to be constantly evaluated, and ways to expand career and technical programs and/or enrollment in those programs should be explored so that any interested Merrimack students have the opportunity to participate. |
| Question 7 |
What are your thoughts on ELO's (extended learning opportunities)?
|
| Response: | Opportunities for students to learn in new, different, real-world ways outside the traditional classroom setting should always be encouraged. Our society has changed so rapidly over the last 50 years, and much of education has not kept pace. Students in 2020 have myriad ways to experience and explore the world, but often school does not engage them in the things they are interested in or the modalities in which they learn. An excellent education in 2020 should be flexible, creative, outside-the-box, and explore many different ways that students can access and experience the same learning, but in new, innovative ways. Community service, online learning, apprenticeships, independent studies and the like can be employed to engage students who might otherwise struggle in a traditional school setting or can extend the experience of a student who excels in a classroom, but needs the challenge of applying knowledge in a real-world setting. I would like to see Merrimack greatly expand ELO's particularly at the high school level. |
| Question 8 |
Do you find value in benchmarking us against other districts and if so, how?
|
| Response: | I think we should absolutely be paying attention to the best practices of the districts surrounding us. We can learn a lot from what other districts do and how they do it. However, comparing town-to-town for certain metrics can give a false picture if all of the facts, data and demographics are not considered. Some towns are a decent comparison because of socio-economics, median education level, district size, building configuration, and student demographics (things like ESOL, SpEd or Free/Reduced lunch population.) However other towns are less congruent comparisons when you look at those same demographics. We should absolutely be paying attention as district leaders to see what other districts are doing and how they are innovating and modernizing the educational process and approaching various needs within their school communities that we can learn from. We simply have to be careful that we are not comparing apples to oranges when doing one-to-one comparisons of between towns that may or may not have comparable demographics/situations/populations. |
| Question 9 |
Please share your thoughts on how Merrimack is currently doing working with
students who have additional and special needs, and if you see any changes that should
be made, etc.
|
| Response: | We should be very proud that our district has a reputation for excellence in this area. Heather Barker and her team do just an outstanding job of meeting the needs of exceptional students and supporting their families. Working in a charter school has given me an opportunity to "compare districts" from the teacher perspective. Home districts manage the IEPs of students in a Charter School, and some districts make providing the services that students truly need to thrive and be successful painfully difficult for teachers and families. I'm proud to say that Merrimack is not one of the districts that makes doing what is best or necessary for students difficult. On a personal level, as a parent with a student on an IEP, we have been very pleased with the district's efforts to ensure our child has the support they need to succeed in school. Our district has a responsibility to assure that every student regardless of any challenges has the ability to succeed to their fullest potential. Merrimack partners well with parents to that end, and that is something that we as a community should be proud of. |
| Question 10 |
If there is a budget cut, what would you cut first?
|
| Response: | If budget cuts were needed, I would be looking for areas to cut that would not impact student education or opportunities. I would look at cutting routine maintenance items that did not jeopardize staff or student safety. In that scenario, an analysis of all budget areas- including staff- would also need to be done to see where there could be any consolidation or adjustments that would not impact educational outcomes. |