The news that Amy Rex has resigned from her position as co-principal of Harwood Union is sad news indeed.
Rex, who was recently named high school principal of the year with her co-principal Lisa Atwood, announced her resignation this week, after five years at the school.
This is a real loss for Harwood. Rex is well regarded and highly accomplished. Her teachers describe her as “the heart of the school” and her students are of similar opinion. It’s a real loss when leadership is critical.
Rex cited issues with the Harwood Unified Union School Board as reasons for her resignation. Brigid Nease, the superintendent of the Washington West Supervisory Union, said that Washington West is imploding because internecine disagreements among board members and that bad conduct by some board members has disheartened school principals beyond Rex.
Other members of the Harwood Unified Union School District Board have suggested that actions of some board members have been the monkey wrench in the operations for the new unified union board. It’s hard to fathom how a couple of board members could derail the entire board and all its works. That’s giving those members a lot of power.
And there’s a lot of he said/she said to which the public will never be privy because the discussions about these issues took place in executive session on May 24. Ultimately, assigning blame is counterproductive in light of the loss of a capable, award-winning, respected and beloved administrator.
There was much discussion after the vote to merge our six-town district under Act 46 and much effort went into crafting articles of governance that were fair, respectful, functional and usable. But planning to govern a six-town, seven-school district turns out to be significantly more difficult than actually governing such a district.
There’s plenty of blame being passed around, but the reality is that there’s simply still a lot of work to be done by the yeomen who are sitting around that table in the Harwood library every month doing it. Keep going. Keep doing it. Your work is important and the contribution of each of you is important. All of you.
It’s a real loss to have Amy Rex leave our high school. Let’s wish her well and thank her for her passion and service for our school and our community.
