By Chris Barber
Contributing Writer

Kimberly Rizzo Saunders assumed the reins of the Kennett Consolidated School District as the new superintendent on Aug. 24, and she took her seat at the head of the executive table at the Sept. 9 school board meeting.

Rizzo Saunders, who earned her doctorate in education at Northeastern University, came most recently from the Contoocook Valley School District in New Hampshire. She served as the superintendent there since 2016. Last year she was elected one of four finalists for the National Superintendent of the Year honor. She replaces Kennett’s former Superintendent Dusty Blakey, who announced earlier this year that he would be retiring in July. During the period between Blakey’s departure and the arrival of Rizzo Saunders, Assistant Superintendent Michael Barber took on that role. At the September board meeting, he was formally rehired as the assistant superintendent and will continue to serve the district in that role.

Although her contracted start date was Aug. 24, Rizzo Saunders came to visit and survey the Kennett school community several times ahead of that, including several board interviews, the groundbreaking for the replacement New Garden Elementary School and the July school board meeting.

When she was asked how she chose Kennett for her step from Contoocook, she said she had begun to receive numerous inquiries about employment elsewhere following her nomination for the National Superintendent of the Year honor. She looked through these inquiries and she said what especially attracted her to Kennett was the mission statement phrase that said, “. … (KCSD) is committed to supporting all of our students' . …”

The word “all” stood out to her, because during her work at Northeastern University she was part of a program to work with re-entering probationary students back into the system. It was then she realized that all students have talent.

She quoted the words of 1985 Harvard graduate Leslie Cornfeld, an entrepreneur, educator, equity advocate, policy advisor and public and private sector consultant who currently leads a nonprofit that she founded to "drive opportunity at scale through innovation, collaboration and action.”

Cornfield is quoted as saying, “Talent is equally distributed. Opportunity is not.”

While she was considering the inquiry from Kennett, Rizzo Saunders and her husband, Robert, took a drive south to the district. She said the minute they entered the school district area she was immediately attracted to it.

“. …(T)he varieties of land with rural and small towns. We stopped for lunch as La Verona and dessert at Talula’s Table. Everyone was so nice.”

Shortly after she was hired, she and her new communications director Lisa Palmarini issued a 24-page entry plan called “Listen, Learn, Lead.”

In it, Rizzo Saunders said she intends to spend a week at each elementary school and two weeks each at the high school and middle school listening to and learning about them.

She insisted that this plan is not about giving orders or changing the schools to her preferences, but rather to get to know how they work.

She wrote in the plan, “I have always been committed to the vision of a transparent, student-centered community that focuses on the core elements of teaching and learning.”

In keeping with her intention to connect with the public, she set up a vendor tent on Broad Street next to the growing demonstration at the recent Mushroom Festival. She was very popular with passersby, and she engaged in conversations with many of them, giving out small trinkets to the children and introducing herself to the parents. While there, she said she was struck by how friendly people were and how prosperous the town seems.

Rizzo Saunders, 53, and her family have moved to a home in Landenberg for her new role with KCSD. In addition her husband, she has a son, Parker, who is 18, and a fox red Labrador retriever.

Among historical individuals, she said admires Abraham Lincoln and Abigail Adams the most.

“I believe education is the foundation for the democracy and for the public’s information and opportunity,” she said.