Meet Rivendell’s New Superintendent

For the past four months we have had a new face at Rivendell, her name is Elaine Arbour and she is the new superintendant of our school. Ms. Arbour may be new to Rivendell, but she is not new to this type of work. She “worked at Dover for 3 years as the superintendent”, Mr. Gelenian tells us. In fact, Mr. Gelenian had a lot to say about Ms. Arbour. He was very impressed that she was the first superintendent to attend professional development. She also went to High Tech High, and a 3 day seminar at Harvard with Mr. Gelenian and other faculty members. After much praising, Mr. Gelenian said, “I could go on and on. I’m really impressed with her, she’s great.” He also said that she was very highly recommended to the school, and was the clear choice out of the many that applied for the job. To sum it up, Mr. Gelenian said “She truly wants to make a better Rivendell, a better school district.”

Ms. Arbour is already on the track to making Rivendell a better school district. Over the last four months has “been working on getting to know people at the district”, and said “I have liked getting to know more people in a short time, which is difficult in a larger district.” Now Ms. Arbour is “working on developing the budget for the next school year”. Next for her agenda is “to determine the best way to configure our schools from both educational and financial perspectives” She also wants to work on how we use our buildings, but says that will be a longer process.

Ms. Arbour lives in Sunapee with her husband and two dogs. She and her husband love to grow most of their own food, and work on their land together. Her husband is the principal of a NH school.