By Stowell P. Watters
Staff Writer
    Kennebunk High School Principal Nelson Beaudoin has been at the helm for seven years but, as everyone at the school knows, he will be saying goodbye to graduating seniors for the last time when he retires this spring.
    “It is just time for me to retire, simple as that,” Beaudoin said, sitting at a table in his Kennebunk office.
    His contract ends June 30. He said the decision to retire came after a lifetime of serving different schools and has brewed from both the stresses and the joys of these positions.
    “There are infinite frustrations concerning the politics of education,” he said. “But the thing I will miss the most is the excitement of being with the kids and seeing their growth, their development, their excitement and their mistakes.”
    Beaudoin was hired in 2001 in the midst of what he called “a time of change.” Upon arrival Beaudoin went about the daunting task of revising many of the school’s policies and codes.
    “It was just time to shuffle up the deck for Kennebunk High School, I came here at the right time,” he said.
    The education schedule for the school runs on alternating ‘blue and white days,’ indicative of the school’s colors. On blue days students go to a different set of classes than on white days. Prior to Beaudoin’s term as principal, if a snow day canceled a blue day, for instance, that set of classes would be rescheduled for the following day. This, according to Beaudoin, produced a huge scheduling mess as every day had to be reworked on the calendar.
    “A lot of little things needed to be more streamlined to connect the students with their education,” Beaudoin said.
    Beaudoin instituted weighted grades and shifted the classic grade point average grading scale to a 100 point scale. He even got rid of the ranking system at the school.
    “If you have one student with a 93.729 GPA ranked seventh in their class and a student with a 93.725 ranked 19, are you really clarifying anything about their education and knowledge by giving them a rank?” he said.
    To ensure students wouldn’t be at a disadvantage when it came time to apply to college he made sure the school could supply an equivalent rating. His idea, now in use, was to have students’ rank in their class represented by the percentile they were in compared to their classmates.
    “Ranking and sorting kids is essentially wrong, education isn’t about that,” he said. “Every kid achieves to the best of their ability, what may be important to one student is not to another and standardizing this process can leave smart kids in the dust.”
    He helped make sure every freshman received an agenda book to keep track of their scheduling, he oversaw the creation of The Rampage – the school’s newspaper – and he instituted dress down Fridays in which staff can donate $1 toward a scholarship fund to don more comfortable garb every Friday.
    During his tenure the school has become more relaxed on requirements for advanced placement classes. Beaudoin has never expelled a student and also instituted student involvement at parent-teacher conferences.
    While he was integral to the creation of these new programs as well as a list of about 130 more changes, Beaudoin is quick to note that he could never do all of the work alone.
    “All of the changes you see that have brought Kennebunk students closer to their education and closer to the staff, and each other, could never have happened without their hard work and the work of the central office, faculty and parents,” he said.
    When he was hired seven years ago, Beaudoin was prompted with the task of changing the climate and culture of KHS. According to Superintendent Tom Farrell, it was Beaudoin’s task to make students more invested in their education.    
    “He certainly has done that,” Farrell said. “I thank him for the job he has done here. He really put his heart and soul into the school district and I think it is just his time to relax with his family and do some golfing and some bowling.”
   Farrell was not the superintendent at the time Beaudoin was hired, but said he is very familiar with the history of his employment at KHS.
   A resident of Poland, Beaudoin said his 50 mile commute is one thing he will not miss. Also on this list is the stress that comes with what he calls “the tug of war of taxation and education.”
   “A part of any principal’s job is the fight and claw for everything you have,” Beaudoin said.
   He spoke of the ongoing consolidation talks as being one of the sore spots in his career, and said there is no way it will save any schools any money. Another issue that has daunted him has been the negative perception some students have of the administration. In the most recent publication of The Rampage, sophomore Joey Aaskov sounded off.
    “They’re (the administration) not working hard enough toward what the students really need, they should gear everything toward students and not politics,” Aaskov said. That comment appeared in the article “Administration putting new systems in place,” by Mike Sampson.
    This kind of misperception, Beaudoin said, is easy to have.
    “Well there is a lot of truth to that, the education process is very political on some levels,” he said. “Schools should primarily be about students: kids first, budget and management should take a different place on the to-do list.”
    His job, which he said is to essentially coordinate 1,000 people every day and make sure each is doing their job, is supplemented by his writing. To date Beaudoin has published two books (“Stepping Outside of your Comfort Zone” 2005 and “Elevating the Student Voice” 2006) and is currently working on a third entitled “School for Each Student.”
    Before his work at KHS Beaudoin was principal at area high schools throughout Maine for seven years and served as an assistant principal and athletic director for various schools for 30 years prior to that. But of all his work, he said, he is most satisfied with the changes at KHS.
    “There has been a lasting improvement to the climate and culture of this school, we are now accredited for the next 10 years as well as being an IB (International Baccalaureate) accredited school,” he said. Kennebunk High School is the first and only school in Maine to be accepted into the IB program, which allows them to provide students with college level education – sometimes shaving off students’ time spent in college by a year, according to the IB Web site www.ibo.org.
    Taking his place at the beginning of next school-year will be Pete Dawson. On Jan. 28 the school board officially hired him.
    As for his impending retirement, Beaudoin said he plans to relax, but doubts he will be content with doing nothing.
    “I wont be napping all of the time,” he said “I have my family, my writing, golfing and I want to volunteer.”
    To contact Stowell P. Watters, call 282-4337 ext. 219 or email news@kennebunkpost.com.