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Dr. David Hopson |
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January 7, 2008 With the New Year comes some new staff in the district. These new staff were not hired to fill additional positions, but rather to replace existing staff leaving the district. The two I’ll discuss here are the Director of Technology and the High School Guidance positions. After nearly 9 years as Technology Director, Mr. Paul Facteau is leaving the district to work for Apple, Inc. as a regional consultant. Leaving public education for the private sector is a major change for Paul, but appears consistent with his talents, abilities and goals. We all wish Paul the best in his new job and anticipate that he’ll continue working with the district to improve educational opportunities for students and staff. Angela Burke is our recently hired Director of Technology and is expected to start on February 1st. Angela comes to Gateway from South Hadley Public Schools where she was the K-12 Instructional Technology Specialist. Angela has worked for the South Hadley District since August of 2000. She also worked as a Technology Educational Consultant for the Southwestern Ohio Instructional Technology Agency for three years, was the Director of Technology for the Troy City School District in Ohio and was the help desk and acquisition services Manager for Johnson Controls for three years. She has a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles, CA) and a M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Angela was chosen from a large pool of very talented applicants after a multistage interview process and input from a broad range of individuals. We look forward to welcoming Angela into the district and continuing to build upon the past successes of the technology department. We also have a mid-year retirement from the high school guidance office with Pauline McCarthy retiring after nearly 32 years of service in the Gateway District. Pauline has been a major influence on a large number of students over the years and we all wish her the best in her retirement. Replacing Pauline as guidance counselor is Carolyn Laurenza. Carolyn has a B.A. in Psychology from Swarthmore College and a M.Ed. with emphasis on guidance counseling from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has experience as a Clinical Case Manager; worked with the DOE project on the “Massachusetts Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs Implementation Guide”, and as a Tutor, Project Assistant and Teachers’ Assistant. Carolyn has also been Gateway’s ‘Guidance Intern’ this fall so is a familiar face to many students, parents and staff members. Carolyn was chosen from an extremely large pool of applicants in a multi-step process that included staff and administrators. Carolyn is an excellent addition to the middle/high school counseling staff. Gateway’s ability to garner large numbers of applicants for various positions reflects the positive school climate, success of the district, support by the towns and, above all, the quality of our existing staff and student body. Given our past success in choosing highly qualified candidates, I have no doubt that the district will continue to be successful in meeting student needs as we move through the next five years and see most of our experienced staff retire. While this will be a challenging time, it will also provide many opportunities for the district and our students. We’ve certainly been successful due to the work of our current and past staff, but we still have a multitude of problems to resolve to ensure that students continue to be successful in a world that changes more quickly every day. Or, to quote Henry Kissinger, “Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.”
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