Granite State Times

The 2022 New Hampshire School Administrator Association Superintendent of the Year says the best part about her job is interacting with students in the classroom.

Lisa Witte, Monadnock Regional School District Superintendent of Schools, has been named 2022 Superintendent of the Year by the New Hampshire School Administrator Association and the American Association of School Administrators.

Witte has spent the last seven years of her 27-year long career in education at Monadnock.

“This is year seven and I think I’ve earned the trust of the community, which is an award in and of itself, to have built a lot of solid relationships here,” Witte said. “I love the community. I love all of our towns. I have a fantastic school board.”

Witte found out in the fall that she had been nominated for the award by 2021 recipient Winfried Feneberg, superintendent of schools at Kearsarge Regional School District, she said.

On Tuesday, Feneberg said he nominated Witte because she is “a compassionate leader” and “a champion for children and education.”

“Lisa is a leader of leaders. She is a strong and intelligent advocate for public education. She is engaged actively in the wellbeing of her district students, staff, and community. Lisa looks out for public education by advising through public comment our political leaders in Concord when new laws or educational regulations are introduced that affect schools and students. She is a trusted colleague who also serves her community as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. She has assisted with vaccination clinics in her district as well,” Feneberg said.

Witte immediately reached out to Feneberg and he encouraged her to go through the application process for the award, which asked her to give examples in four different categories — communication, leadership for learning, professionalism and community involvement, she said.

In her response to the nomination process, she shared her strategic planning and vision for the school district, her response to the pandemic, volunteer work at the state level for education, her advocacy for education issues before the state legislature and her involvement with her local community.

“I’m a pretty active voice statewide for all things education whether it’s funding for schools or voucher bills,” Witte said. “I tend to be pretty vocal and involved.”

Witte lives in Peterborough with her daughter Avery and works to be involved in her community. She is a volunteer at the state-run vaccination clinic in Keene and is a Peterborough firefighter.

“I just think there are a lot of pieces that came together that touched on the different parts of the application,” Witte said.

Witte only just joined the Peterborough Fire Department this past spring when she learned they were in need of firefighters, she said. It has been a lot of training, but she has learned a new set of skills and made a lot of friends, she said.

“My dad was a firefighter (and) EMT when I was growing up and I always admired him for that and I really enjoyed seeing him do something that brought him a lot of joy,” Witte said. “I really love living in Peterborough. It’s a great town and it (joining the fire department) was a way to get a little bit more ingrained in the community and it’s fun.”

Witte has been at Monadnock Regional School District in Swanzey since 2015. Before that, she worked at SAU 34 in Hillsborough as director of curriculum of instruction and assessment, the Manchester School District as director of federal projects and Pembroke Academy as assistant principal.

Monadnock is the first time she has served as a superintendent, she said. It’s a multifaceted job that she loves in part because of how diverse it is, she said.

“Never in a million years would I have guessed ‘responding to a pandemic’ would have ended up in my job description or resume, but that is just the way it is,” Witte said. “The best part about my job, though, is visiting schools and hanging out in classrooms with the kids and watching them learn.”

“That’s why I do what I do,” she said, adding that the school closures and limited classroom time caused by the pandemic has not been fun. “To not be able to do that as much as I would like is really hard.”

Witte will receive her award at a national conference in Nashville this February. She will also be recognized at the state conference in June where she is to be the keynote speaker. And later in 2022, she will be attending the Superintendent of the Year Gala in Washington, D.C., she said.

“It is an honor. It’s humbling and I’m very proud to represent our community — all of our towns, our community and our state in this capacity. It’s surreal at times,” Witte said. “I’m incredibly proud to represent Monadnock. The community here is supportive. It really is a special place. I’m really lucky to have ended up here.”