David Baker Centers Sustainability and Trust Across Plainfield and Cornish

Thu, 24 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

David Baker did not soften the central challenge facing the two small New Hampshire districts he now leads.

“It will be difficult for either district to remain on their own for much longer,” Baker wrote in answers to The NHEdTribune. “That is why the cooperative work between Cornish and Plainfield is so imperative.”

Baker is the interim superintendent serving Plainfield^↗ and Cornish^↗. He confirmed that title and confirmed that the written answers were his own words. The SAU 32 staff directory on Plainfield's site also lists him as superintendent. The role spans two districts with separate enrollment records and local identities, but a shared leadership relationship.

The state data show why one simple narrative would be misleading. Plainfield enrolled 181 students in 2025-26, down 33 students, or 15.4%, from 214 in 2014-15. Cornish moved in the opposite direction across the same endpoints, rising by 29 students, or 28.7%, from 101 to 130.

Together, the two published district totals changed only slightly: 315 students in 2014-15 and 311 in 2025-26, a net decline of four students, or 1.3%. New Hampshire's statewide enrollment fell 12.7% across those endpoints. The combined figure is operating context, not a merger of the two districts or proof that cooperation caused either trend.

An interim role built around cooperation

Baker entered the role after a quick succession of leadership changes. The Valley News reported that the two school boards began searching for an interim superintendent after predecessor Kyle Riley left during the prior school year. The report described Plainfield and Cornish as neighboring districts that share leadership while continuing to operate their own schools.

Baker's professional connection to the area predates this assignment. He told The NHEdTribune that he retired from administration in Vermont and already knew the Upper Valley from earlier superintendent service in the region. “It is a great place to live, work and play,” he wrote.

His title matters. An interim appointment is a defined bridge, not a permanent hire. Baker's task is to work across two communities during that transition while the districts confront questions larger than a single personnel change.

The enrollment paths reinforce that distinction. Plainfield and Cornish do not move in lockstep. Plainfield recorded more annual declines than gains across the available state window, while Cornish recorded more gains than declines. Both moved down in the latest year: Plainfield by two students and Cornish by seven.

Those counts do not explain why either district gained or lost students. They do show that shared planning has to accommodate two different trajectories rather than treating the communities as interchangeable.

Sustainability without erasing district identity

Baker's sustainability warning is direct evidence of his own assessment, not a conclusion inferred from the enrollment chart. He wrote that the districts “do have to worry about sustainability” and made cooperation the center of his response.

The latest state data publish one campus total for each district: 181 students at Plainfield Elementary School and 130 at Cornish Elementary School. Each campus row reconciles exactly to its district's published total. That footprint helps define the operating question. The superintendent is working across two small systems, each centered on one local school, rather than across a single consolidated district.

The enrollment record alone cannot answer whether the districts should share more services, alter governance or preserve the current arrangement. It can ground the scale of the conversation. Plainfield's long-window decline and Cornish's growth largely offset each other in the combined total, but the underlying district experiences remain different.

That is why the combined line should be read carefully. A stable two-district sum does not make staffing, budgeting or community priorities identical. It means the shared superintendent has to translate cooperation into decisions that still respect separate boards, schools and enrollment patterns.

Trust is the other half of the job

Baker identified trust, not enrollment, as the biggest immediate challenge.

“There has been frequent administrative turn over and that does not instill trust,” he wrote. He said the communities need to trust one another and the administration, then pointed to Business Administrator Beth Bierwirth as an example of continuity. Plainfield's current staff page lists Bierwirth in that role.

“Her tenure drives that trust,” Baker wrote. “It is so critical.”

That answer gives his interim assignment a second measure of success. Cooperation can be described through shared positions and joint work. Trust depends on whether families, staff and board members experience leadership as steady, candid and responsive over time.

Baker's willingness to state the sustainability problem plainly may help set that tone. He did not promise a quick structural solution or claim the enrollment record points to only one choice. He named the pressure, linked it to cooperation and placed administrative trust alongside it.

For Plainfield and Cornish, the next chapter is therefore not simply about filling a superintendent seat. It is about whether an interim leader can help two distinct districts work together without flattening the differences between them, and whether that work can rebuild the continuity Baker says the communities need.

Enrollment counts come from the New Hampshire Department of Education's public reports. Leadership details and quotations come from David Baker's written responses and attribution confirmation, Cody Schoolcraft's administrative confirmation, Plainfield's current official contact page, and the linked Valley News report.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Plainfield - EdTribune NH - New Hampshire Education Data

David Baker Centers Sustainability and Trust Across Plainfield and Cornish

An interim role built around cooperation

Sustainability without erasing district identity

Trust is the other half of the job