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I began my education career in 1977 after graduating from Salem State College. Shortly after getting married, my wife Sue and I moved to Dunseith, North Dakota where I was responsible for teaching grades 5-6 in all subject areas and also served as the grade 5-6 basketball coach. My initial teaching contract was for $8,300 and I received an additional $275 for coaching. Basketball is big in the mid-west and even at the fifth and sixth grade level it was a 16-week season. I figure that the $275 amounted to about 50 cents an hour.
After a year in Dunseith I took a job on the nearby Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, Belcourt, North Dakota where I taught grades 7-8 science and mathematics. I served as Acting Assistant Principal at various times during my tenure at the school, as I was working on a Masters in Education degree in Educational Administration through the University of North Dakota. I received my Masters in May 1983 and that summer I was hired to be principal of Surrey Public School in Surrey, North Dakota. As principal I was responsible for K-6 elementary school program with 250 students that was part of a K-12 complex in a small town in close proximity to Minot Air Force Base. Because the school was K-12, I was quite involved with senior high extracurricular activity programs in this district. The Parent Teacher
Association was very big in the Midwest at the time and I served as president of the Surrey Public School PTA from 1985-87.
After 10 years in North Dakota and three children born in that state (Mathew 1978, Christopher 1979, and Rachel 1985) we decided that I should pursue employment opportunities in the New England area. Sue and I grew up in Ipswich, Massachusetts and we wanted our children to know their grandparents. In 1987, I was hired as principal of Maple Avenue School in Claremont, New Hampshire. When I was hired the school housed grades K - 4 and about 200 children but with consolidation during my ninth year as principal, the school was expanded to include grade 5 and the student population exceeded 400. During my tenure at Maple Avenue I was noted for making frequent classroom visits, knowledge of each student in the building, and involvement in community and parent groups.
After 11 years at the helm of Maple Avenue School I made the move to a school the size of which was more to my liking, taking the reins at Kearsarge Regional Elementary School at Bradford, in Bradford, New Hampshire. At this school I was responsible for a K-5 elementary school program with 210 students. The Kearsarge School District is respected for its strong emphasis on cooperative learning, reality therapy/control theory, and curriculum integration initiatives. I remained with the Kearsarge district until 2004 and then decided to accept an offer from the Lebanon School District to become principal of School Street School and Sacred Heart Public School. Interestingly, I was offered this position in 1987 by then superintendent of schools Dr. Daniel Whittaker but turned the position down in favor of a single
school (Maple Avenue). I have enjoyed my five-year tenure at the wonderful small schools in the center of downtown Lebanon but the decision was made to consolidate and now I will be principal at the newly configured Hanover Street School. The old Hanover Street School housed grades 3 - 6 but the new school will house grades K - 4 with a student population of about 300. I am looking forward to the challenge of shaping the culture of a primary school and feel uniquely qualified to take on the task given my prior experience with consolidation during my tenure in Claremont. Throughout my 32-year educational career my goal has been to guide and stimulate a creative instructional program, which will aid in transmitting skills and knowledge and lead to full creative growth--intellectually, socially, and physically, in children. I will continue to pursue this goal in my new surroundings at Hanover Street School.
In addition to my professional interests I enjoy keeping myself in good physical condition by running, cycling, and hiking on regular basis. The past two winters I have taken up winter hiking. My wife and I also enjoyed camping and canoeing. I have completed nineteen marathons (PR 3:26) and have climbed the 64 New England 4000-foot mountains. My wife Susan is a Licensed Practical Nurse and recently made a career change moving from the field of geriatrics and into school nursing at the Sugar River Valley Technical Center in Claremont. Our children are now 31, 29, and 23. Mathew, our eldest, and his wife Jesse gave us our first grandchild as Owen Scott was born on October 25, 2008.
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