The Hermon School Department will have a new superintendent next month, a year after the department’s previous leader announced his departure.
Barbara Sargent will start April 1, after she retires as superintendent at a New Jersey school district. She replaces Micah Grant, who submitted his resignation April 1, 2024, before stepping down at the end of the school year. The department has had interim superintendents fill the role in the period since.
When Sargent steps into her new role, she will helm a school department that’s experienced a tumultuous period that included several lawsuits and attempted book bans, and faces the task of uniting a split community.
She is leaving her job as superintendent at West Morris Regional High School District, a group of high schools in Chester, New Jersey, made up of a couple thousand students. Sargent has previously been superintendent at two other New Jersey districts and held various leadership roles, according to her LinkedIn.
Hermon caught her eye because it’s near her oldest son and his wife, who live in Frankfort, and she was ready to leave New Jersey, Sargent said. As she did more research and participated in the interview process, she discovered that she liked the district and the direction it’s heading.
“I thought, you know, this is a place that really wants to be doing great things, wants to be capitalizing on the successes they’ve already had, and I felt really connected to that,” Sargent said. “I wanted to be a part of that and to help them move forward.”
The school department has faced pushback from a small selection of parents and community members over access to certain books after a group campaigned for parental consent for library titles with mature or sexual content. Eighty-one books were ultimately restricted, including Stephen King’s “Gerald’s Game” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five,” but more than 80 percent of high school students received parental permission to access the full Hermon High School library.
Hermon School Department was also involved in three lawsuits in recent years, with one alleging religious discrimination still pending in federal court. Two lawsuits, one filed by the school and the other against the department, involved now-deceased conservative activist Shawn McBreairty.
A 2022 lawsuit said McBreaity made false and defamatory statements against a Hermon teacher, including calling the teacher a “sexual predator” and “head of the hypersexualization movement” in statements on social media, his podcast, local radio and in a letter to the school department.
The lawsuit was dismissed after McBreairty’s death.
Sargent has seen colleagues at other districts go through similar issues as Hermon, but it isn’t something she’s experienced first hand. When those issues arise, transparency and talking through decisions publicly are important, she said.
“I really pride myself on being transparent with the board, transparent with the community,” Sargent said.
Working with the school committee and listening to people who know the department’s history is something she said she’ll make sure she does. She promised to take the time to talk to people who have questions or concerns.
Sargent said she wants to make the decision that is right for students and the community.
“More often than not, I’ve done so much homework going into it and I’ve had really candid conversations with folks along the way, so that when we do make decisions the community is not taken by surprise,” she said.
The school committee is excited to have Sargent start and for the experience she will bring, school committee chairperson Stephanie Oiler said.
“I think it’s going to be good to have an outside perspective,” Oiler said.
Starting in April gives Sargent time to connect with parents, staff and town officials when there aren’t a ton of decisions to make, she said, and allows her to learn about the district first. Listening to people will be a big part of her job when she gets to Maine.
“I’m really interested in understanding more thoroughly just what that connection is between the town and the school and keeping that partnership really positive,” Sargent said.
Sargent met a number of teachers and community members during an event at the beginning of February. One woman gave her a copy of The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer and she ran into the boys basketball team in the kitchen when they were looking for cookies.
“I think coming out of that just really reinforced for me the excitement people have and the pride that they have in their schools and wanting to see the schools continue to do well and for the students to continue to do well,” Sargent said.
The first change Sargent said she has planned is more communication from the school department to parents and community members. At previous jobs she has sent out a monthly newsletter highlighting changes, like new staff, as well as things happening throughout the district.
It’s something she said she wants to do for Hermon. She’s also interested in setting up monthly coffee meetings or something similar.
“One of the things I’d like to do right away is to begin that consistent communication with our staff and families,” Sargent said.