Primary Election

September 15th 2009

We hosted about 2,000 voters from Manchester’s Ward One today. I arrived at school 5:30 a.m. and several DS employees were already hard at work helping sign holders, setting up the parking lot and generally serving everyone involved. As the sun started to come up, the voting began and the four people stationed in the parking lot had to keep an eagle eye out in every direction until the voting ended at 7 p.m.

The event takes about 60 man-hours for Derryfield to staff it appropriately. Our facility allows us to serve dozens of disabled people who would otherwise not make it to the polls, and along the way Derryfield gets a bit less mysterious to neighbors who have perhaps heard of our school, but certainly have never been on campus. We have two policemen to help with the traffic – one stationed at the bottom of Bicentennial, and the other at the top of the upper school entrance. Many middle school students and parents reported to me that they either did not know or had forgotten that we had voting on the other side of the campus. At the end of the day, the policeman who had been stationed at the top of the upper school entrance came to my office to tell me a story. He said “I just wanted you to know that in my twelve years on the police force, I have never been spoken to with such kindness by students . . . and adults weren’t even around when they were being nice!”

What more can you ask as a Head of School? This officer sought me out because it really mattered to him that I knew the extent to which our students are unusual. And, in his own way, he affirmed one of the reasons to host voting at our school – Derryfield is a gem too hidden, and when people get to know our students, our teachers and our community, they often feel the need to tell others about us. In this small way, we can keep the cycle of service, community presence, and goodwill growing.