Jim McCollum: A farewell letter to Sachem Nation

Dear Sachem Nation,

After wrapping up my career (for a second time) in good ole Sachem Nation last April, I have now had the opportunity to relax and reflect for a bit and I felt compelled to write to The Laconia Daily Sun, a paper we used often during my tenure as principal at both the middle and high schools of the Little City on the Lake, to express my appreciation for the community I came to love. I offer this primarily as a message of thanks to the community and also appreciation for the leaders, both educational leaders and community leaders, who I will remember as heroes of Laconia for their consistent, selfless work and commitment to making Sachem Nation a wonderful place to live, work, learn and play.

I will forever consider it a special honor to return to Laconia to support LHS and the community due to the sudden and unfortunate passing of Mr. Rob Bennett in October three years ago. That I was asked to do this meant a lot to me as it gave me one more chance to serve in a place where my career blossomed and where I was given a chance to serve the community beyond the role of principal through programs like Better Together and our own product from that group (and the Laconia Middle School PTO,) Stand Up Laconia. I want to thank Bob Champlin, Joe Cormier and (the late, great) Bob Dassatti for being role models during those early years. If it had not been for them, I would not have seen the opportunity and privilege that it is to “get involved” beyond the job. I also want to thank former Mayors Matt Lahey and Mike Seymour for investing in me during that time. Their support and guidance and quite honestly, just watching how they made good things happen for the community, was so impressive. The same can be said about current Mayor Andrew Hosmer during my last term of service. All of these leaders invested in people and I was very fortunate to be one of them.

I also want to thank the amazing folks on the leadership teams I was so fortunate to be a part of over the two plus decades I served in Laconia. With Jen Sottak, Chris Ennis, Doug Whittum and Anna Solomon at the middle school, we were able to turn a struggling middle-level program into a highly successful academic program that pushed kids toward better performance in all aspects of their lives. Our performance scores, both academic and behavioral, during that time remain a highlight of my career. I also want to thank the outstanding team of teacher leaders I was privileged to work with at LMS. We built a whole lot of pride in our program and it served the students and community well. I am so thankful that I was in Laconia and working with the kids and families of this community during this period of my career. It was a blessing to serve Laconia!

When I got the shot to lead the high school, I was immediately surrounded by another group of supah-stahs. My academic coordinator back then was an elite career educator named Steve Tucker. Together, working side by side every day for four years, and along with amazing support from teacher-leaders, we built an academic program that saw the tripling of Advanced Placement courses and dual enrollment/college credit courses. Over 200 students, almost a third of the school community, were accessing these programs by the time my tenure ended in 2016. The term “Sachem Nation” became the mantra and school pride became something that spread well beyond the walls of the school, impacting the entire community in a positive way. Because of this communitywide buy-in and support, our academic performance scores in literacy were the highest ever recorded on standardized testing and our writing scores were comparable to the best in the state. 

With the help of two more supah-stahs, coach Craig Kozens (athletic director and dean of students) and Ms. Amy Hinds, who was our student services director, along with AP Bartlett and our school resource officer Steve Orton (one of my favorite people in the world), we built a program that served every student, valuing relationships, rigor and relevance and celebrating academic excellence for all. The teacher-leaders of the building were amazing and I was so privileged to see the fruit of their work daily. Interestingly, I had the opportunity to hire an amazing math teacher in my final year at LHS. That person was Ms. Lisa Hinds and she helped turn our math program around, making it one of the strongest departments in the school in short order. She went on to serve as the math department head and then the academic coordinator. I was both fortunate and privileged to work side by side with her during my final run. I am thrilled to know Ms. Hinds now proudly serves and the principal of Laconia High and the community is blessed with her in that role!

Finally, I want to give a shout out to an elementary administrator, Eric (Tank) Johnson, a leader I have known now for 17 years. He became one of my close friends over the years and has been a stalwart for Laconia elementary education. He, along with Mr. Tucker, has been instrumental in bringing the elementary program into the most unified place it has ever been, and that will have a huge impact on learning as Laconia continues to excel.

In closing, I will always be thankful for the supportive community, the proud history, and the educators of Laconia. The core folks I mentioned, folks who truly love Laconia and make it a better place, are all still serving Laconia, which is a blessing to this community. The support I received from these folks throughout my career in Laconia determined my success and I am thankful to each of them. That team remains in Sachem Nation and they have done truly amazing things in Laconia. They have done these things because they have something that really makes all the difference, a little thing called integrity. That value has always been a requirement of effective service to any system and I found it everywhere in Laconia. When I came back it was still there, because those people were and are still there are doing what matters; doing what benefits. Laconia, you are lucky to have them, and I know I am lucky to call these folks my friends.

Thank you, Laconia, for your support of this old principal for 23 years (on and off). Laconia will always be a special place and will always have a special place in my heart.

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Jim McCollum is a former principal in the Laconia School District who retired in April. He currently lives in Florida.