Dear Editor,
North Salem needs a rallying cry for its schools.
We live in a small, high-tax district where families reasonably expect a high-touch educational experience: strong academics, engaged students, experienced teachers, and the kind of individualized attention that should be possible in a district of this size.
Yet the academic trajectory should concern every parent and taxpayer. On one statewide ranking measure, North Salem fell from No. 139 in 2016 to No. 268 in 2023, while neighboring Katonah-Lewisboro improved from No. 85 to No. 61 during the same period. No single ranking tells the whole story, but a sustained decline while North Salem spends significantly more per student than neighboring districts should be enough to prompt serious re-examination.
When major leadership positions become available, we should be asking whether we are simply filling gaps or using those moments to conduct broad searches, bring in new ideas, and find leaders with demonstrated experience improving educational outcomes.
Our teachers are one of this district’s most valuable investments. We pay for experienced, highly qualified educators because their judgment, knowledge and ability to lead a classroom matter. When instruction becomes increasingly scripted, standardized and tightly paced, we risk stripping away the very expertise we are paying for. In a small district like North Salem, teachers should have the flexibility to respond to the students in front of them — not simply deliver the same boxed program in the same way regardless of the classroom.
We do not need more presentations explaining where we are. We need leadership willing to rethink what is not working and change where we are going.
The Board of Education and district leadership should also be looking outward. What are comparable, high-performing districts doing differently? How are they supporting teachers, developing curriculum and improving academic outcomes? We should be studying districts like Katonah-Lewisboro and asking what North Salem can learn from them.
North Salem has the resources, the teachers and the community support to be exceptional. The board and administration should stop defending the status quo long enough to ask a more important question: what do we need to do differently to get there?
-Maureen Farago, North Salem
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