As Winchester tuition agreement process unfolds, a glimpse into life at Hinsdale High

The Winchester district is looking to send its students to Hinsdale High after its tuition agreement with the Keene district expires at the end of the 2026-27 school year. Last February, Keene announced it would not renew the agreement.

The Sentinel followed four Hinsdale High students — one from each grade — over a month to see what life is like there and to hear their thoughts about how the influx of students would shape their rural school community.

They say they look forward to inviting new ideas and more engagement in co-curricular activities. And the younger students are excited about the possible connections to be formed.

But, with a combined middle/high school building, these four Hinsdale students also all wondered: How would all of Winchester’s students end up fitting in — literally?

Winchester has paid tuition to send its students to Keene High since 2006, the year after Thayer High School closed. After several months of meetings and a lone recommendation for Hinsdale High School from a committee studying Winchester’s options, the Winchester School Board chose to move forward in January with negotiating a tuition contract for the town’s teenagers to attend Hinsdale High.

While a draft tuition agreement recently released ahead of a public hearing next week spells out key differences for taxpayers and families to consider, the voices of students at Hinsdale High convey both excitement and curiosity.

Through a student’s eyes

On Feb. 20, the lunch room at Hinsdale Middle/High was bustling with conversation. It was the Thursday before the school’s annual week-long break that month.

The final lunch period of the day gathered all of the high school into one room. Save for at a few stray tables, most seats were occupied. Excited chatter about plans — someone was going on vacation with their family, another was looking forward to catching a break from all of their math homework — echoed through the room.

That day, the main meal option was a ramen noodle bar. The cafeteria also offers a la carte items such as pizza, French fries and frozen yogurt.

Diamond McCormick, an employee for Hinsdale and Winchester through The Abbey Group, said Winchester students would be happy at Hinsdale.

“Keene High can be a tough place; it’s a bigger school, with a lot more kids from all over. I think they’re going to feel more welcome here. They’ve got some friendly faces in the lunch line waiting for them, that’s for sure.”

Hinsdale High enrolled 155 students from ninth through 12th grades as of Oct. 1. Roughly 130 Winchester students from ninth through 12th grades currently attend Keene High School.

Rya Tetrault, a freshman, and Connor Dixon, a sophomore, could be found chatting after lunch in the hallway between classes. The two are three-sport athletes. Both play soccer and basketball, and Dixon plays baseball while Tetrault plays softball.

They say the school has been a positive learning environment for them. Dixon said teachers are helpful, and work to guide students toward success.

“The teachers encourage you to better yourself. They don’t let you fail,” Tetrault added.

Principal Anna Roth said Hinsdale High has a small but mighty cohort of core teachers. There are three English teachers, and two educators each for math, science and social studies. She highlighted several other classes such as computers, robotics and business.

She noted the school is also growing its advanced placement offerings through a rural network partnership, which could almost double Hinsdale’s current offerings next year from six to 11.

“We join other schools with these programs via Zoom, and we can offer programs as well here to students at those schools if they don’t have something we do, like AP art history,” she said.

Stepping into Tim Benson’s AP art history class that afternoon, several students were working on a project. Benson asked them to choose an artist and create a piece inspired by their art style. They ranged from prominent French painters such as Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh to street artists of the ‘80s and ‘90s like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Junior Landon Goodnow and Senior Madilyn Denis chatted with The Sentinel in a conference room in the main office during the last block of the day. They’re slated to graduate before Winchester students would begin attending, and both said the school community has undergone its own changes.

Denis plans to attend college in the fall, with an interest in studying early childhood education. Goodnow, who competes on the cross country and track and field teams at Hinsdale High, wants to run at the collegiate level. He says the school’s culture has changed over the years, leading to a more positive learning environment.

“I think the shift of how the teachers interact with the administrators has been positive, too,” Goodnow added. “The principal flip has changed a lot of things around here.”

Roth is in her first year as the school’s principal.

“She makes it more inviting. It’s a lot better of an environment with her around,” Denis said.

When considering what Winchester students would bring to the Hinsdale High community, Denis said she’d like to see more participation in clubs and sports.

“I think this will help us have more athletics, and more kids to have things like clubs. They’ll bring their own ideas to start their own clubs,” Denis said. “Right now we don’t have a lot of involvement in clubs after school, it’s mostly the yearbook club and a Magic the Gathering group.”

Roth said there were six clubs running at the school as of Thursday. She added that 80 students are participating in varsity athletics this school year.

Goodnow is looking forward to how the school culture will continue to rally around athletics while also prioritizing academic success and community involvement.

“We take pride in our school. We talk about sports as a community a lot. But we’re also much more than that,” Goodnow said. “We have a kindness day, so we as an entire school community work to give back through community service. Last year we focused on cleaning up our community, picking up trash. One of my teachers held a clothing and food drive.”

Denis noted that there are some drawbacks to a small, rural school. Everyone knows everyone, she said, which can have its pros and cons.

“When something bad happens to someone in our school, we all kind of know about it whether we wanted to or not. It can be tough to navigate that, but I also like not being just a number here,” Denis said. “I’d like to think we’re a hidden treasure in the corner of New Hampshire.”

What’s next

All four Hinsdale High students The Sentinel spoke with are curious about how the school would be able to welcome its newest students, as the projected enrollment over the years would possibly double in size if the tuition agreement between Hinsdale and Winchester is approved.

“Some of my classes are full this year,” Dixon said. “I don’t know how we’re going to fit everyone once Winchester comes in.”

Tetrault agreed.

“I think this will help make our school more diverse. I’m looking forward to having more classmates. But I’m also not sure how they’re all going to fit in here,” she said.

Winchester students in 10th through 12th grades at Keene High will continue to attend until their graduation under the terms of the current tuition agreement. Per a Dec. 10 addendum to Winchester’s tuition contract with the Keene district, Winchester students in 9th grade may attend Keene High until the end of the 2027-28 school year.

Principal Roth said Hinsdale administrators, in anticipation of Winchester students, have already started discussing orientation and introduction programming that involves all incoming students and “helps to build community before the school year begins.”

“More details will be shared over the course of next year, and students should begin to expect outreach from the Hinsdale campus,” she said in an emailed statement. “Of course, all of this is predicated on the approval of the agreement by both towns. “

The recently released draft agreement between Hinsdale and Winchester has several key differences from the current agreement with Keene and Winchester.

The draft agreement states that Winchester will have the flexibility to enter into other tuition agreements and families will have the opportunity to enroll their children in other public schools. This isn’t the case in the contract with Keene, which states that Winchester must exclusively tuition its ninth through 12th-grade students to Keene High.

This means not every student from Winchester would necessarily attend Hinsdale. A family might opt to pursue a tuition agreement to attend one of the other public schools nearby. As long as Hinsdale High receives at least 80 percent of Winchester students, the agreement is met.

Another difference in this agreement is not paying a special education tuition rate. Rather, Winchester would be charged an estimated regular tuition rate of $17,520 for each student, plus any “supplemental costs for special education,” such as additional staffing and/or services required through a student’s individualized learning plan, special equipment or outside evaluations.

David Ryan, the superintendent for both Hinsdale and Winchester, said at a community forum for Winchester families earlier this year that Keene High charges two flat tuition rates in the current tuition agreement: one for regular education and one for special education. He said the rates for the current school year are roughly $18,500 and $34,500.

The new contract also allows for more school board involvement from both sides. The agreement states that both school boards must host joint meetings in Hinsdale at least three times each school year (in August, January and May). Winchester would select one board member to act as a non-voting representative on the Hinsdale board, and Winchester citizens would have the right to attend Hinsdale School Board meetings and address the board to discuss issues pertaining to the high school.

Goodnow said that while the initial growth of the school would likely take some getting used to by the students and staff who come after him, he’s confident in the school’s ability to adjust.

“Sure, there’ll be some things in the short-term that’ll need to be navigated. But it’s a new thing. There’s always bumps in the road when you try something new,” he said. “Keene’s been with Winchester for what, 20 years? That’s a really long time you’ve been doing the same thing. You’ve built a routine there, and then they go and change it up.

“It’s not going to be super sudden, I think, but it will be different. And I think this is going to be great for us in the long run.”

Here is a look at additional facets of attending Hinsdale High School.