Nashua Board of Education member Doris Hohensee has been an ardent advocate for her views and transparent about her desire to see the competency-
based grading system that was put into place last year overturned or forced to compete with the old grading system. That has sparked debate, which is good.

But it’s time to move on.

In May, the school board took up a Hohensee motion to scrap the new 11-point, competency-based grading system and return to the old 100-point system. It failed on a 4-4 vote.

But Hohensee, who chairs the board’s policy committee, resurrected the proposal there last month.

When board member George Farrington argued in committee that the change had already been voted down by the full board, Hohensee said the new proposal was not the same motion.

"We can’t keep rephrasing it until you get what you want," Farrington said.

You can if you are driven by ideology, because the end always justifies the means.

The grading issue was back before the board on Monday night in slightly different form – to allow a dual grading system and let teachers decide which one to use. The board tabled a proposal to take up the issue again, then passed a motion endorsing competency-based grading for the upcoming school year.

Hohensee’s stubborn refusal to accept that she doesn’t have the support of a majority of the rest of the board is a distraction for a district that doesn’t need more of those, dealing – reeling, some might say – with the departure of the leadership team, low student test scores and teacher turnover, among other things.

It also suggests an approach that puts ideology above any practical considerations that might manifest themselves, such as Superintendent Mark Conrad’s concern that tinkering with the grading system this close to the start of the school year would be ill-advised and impossible to implement.

"Where there’s a will, there’s a way," Hohensee explained in a recent interview.

Hohensee has made it clear in her short time on the board that she is motivated by ideology, which is not particularly unusual. Lots of people run for public office motivated by dissatisfaction with the status quo, and many run for public office pushing the items on their own particular agenda.

Hohensee is smart and passionate about the things in which she believes, and there is nothing wrong with having people in public office who are willing – indeed, eager – to question the actions of administrators. It often serves the public interest to raise such questions.

But beneath Hohensee’s unfailingly polite demeanor lurks a barely disguised contempt for eduction professionals that is unhealthy for the district.

It appears premised on the belief that she has the cure for what ails public education and knows more than administrators.

In short, she acts respectful without actually being respectful.

That was evident when Nashua Board of Education members and those in the audience bid goodbye to Conrad on Monday night as he prepares to depart after seven years leading the district. At least two dozen people rose rose in appreciation for his service and gave him a standing ovation.

Only Hohensee, among board members, remained seated.