Newmarket, NH School Board Disgraces Themselves Again!

On August 5th, 2021, the Newmarket School Board entered into a nonpublic session where they voted 4-1 to renew the employment contract of Dr. Susan Givens. The board approved this contract despite numerous public calls for Givens’s resignation and allegations of ethics violations and criminal complaints having recently been filed against her.

Personally, I am not the least bit surprised the school board renewed Givens’s contract. The school board, like Givens, is also under criminal investigation by the state and has had ethics violations filed against them. The board really had no choice but to renew Given’s contract. Givens knows all of the illegal and unethical actions the school board has engaged in.

Beyond the unethical and illegal actions engaged in by Givens, the board should have never renewed her contract based upon the demonstrable incompetence Givens has shown everyone since her first day as superintendent, incompetence which has cost Newmarket taxpayers hundreds of thousands in wasted tax dollars.

In renewing Given’s contract, the school board failed Newmarket students, the community, and every employee of the school district.

In renewing Given’s contract, the school board told the Newmarket paraprofessional organization who reported to the school board on August 5th, 2021 that the group had no confidence in Givens, that their opinion does not matter.

In renewing Given’s contract, the school board ignored the exodus of Newmarket professional educators who continue to flee the district rather than work under Given’s leadership.

Newmarket educators Abby Hatfield and Jen Defastano both just resigned despite being under contract. I expect further resignations will soon take place.

In renewing Given’s contract, the school board sent a clear and unmistakable message to every student in the district that unethical and criminal actions are not only condoned by the school board...but they are rewarded.

All of the above is a reflection of what happens when public officials and employees engage in unethical and illegal activities.
Newmarket school district leadership, superintendent, and school board are destroying public education, and in doing so, destroying the community itself. Something needs to change.

More to follow….

Jeffrey Thomas Clay, M.Ed.