Elementary, Middle School Principals Resign

by Tim Wood

            CHATHAM --- A search for two new building principals is underway after the heads of the town’s middle and elementary schools announced plans to leave at the end of the school year.

            Middle School Principal Marie McKay, a 24-year veteran of the department, and Elementary Principal Daniel Deneen are both leaving for very different reasons.

            Deneen, who is in his second year as elementary school principal, said the need to be closer to his family in Framingham was the chief reason for his decision.  In July he will start a new job as principal of the elementary school in Boylston, a central Massachusetts town of about 4,000.

            McKay has been hired as assistant superintendent in the Barnstable school district.  She also starts her new job on July 1.

            “It’s an opportunity to use all of the wonderful experiences I’ve had in Chatham,” McKay said, citing the seven positions she’s held here that have allowed her to work with students from ages 3 to 18.

            McKay, then middle school guidance counselor, stepped in to the middle school principal position in 2005 when Rosemary Williams took a leave of absence.  When Williams resigned, McKay was chosen to fill the position out of a field of 24 applicants.  She began working in the district in 1984 as the high school adjustment counselor, and over the years also served as special education teacher, elementary adjustment counselor, early childhood coordinator and integrated preschool teacher.

            “It’s been pretty unique to go from preschool to high school,” she said. She has also taught at Cape Cod Community College, widening the spectrum of subjects and students she’s worked with.

            Barnstable is a much larger school system with more programs and a more diverse student body, she noted.  “It has its own exciting opportunities and unique challenges. I’m very excited about it.”  She will be part of the system’s central office leadership team, working with building principals to structure professional development and new teacher mentoring programs, on Title 1 intervention services, budget preparation and curriculum.

            “It was a very, very difficult decision,” McKay said.  “I feel very, very lucky, very privileged.  Chatham has been very good to me.”

            When he took the job at Chatham Elementary School, Deneen said, he planned to care for an elderly parent.  His family was to join him in his second year, but his wife experienced health problems and couldn’t do so.

            “I realized I needed to be closer to our home base, which is in Framingham, even though we have a home here in Yarmouth,” he said Tuesday.

            Leaving Chatham was a difficult decision, he added.

            “I will never work with a finer staff, a greater group of students or a more involved group of parents than I have here in Chatham,” Deneen said.  “This I believe will always be the highlight of my career.”

            He begins work as principal of the Boylston Elementary School, a pre-K through sixth grade school, on July 1.

            Rosanne Crowley, the Chatham school department’s director of student services, also resigned recently, retiring after 37 years in education.

            Search committees have been established for all three positions.  The deadline for applications for elementary school principal and director of student services was Tuesday.  The deadline for applications for the middle school principal position is March 31.

            Plans are to announce final candidates for the elementary principal and director of student services positions at the May school committee meeting, and the middle school position at the June meeting.

3/27/08