Dakin, Fredette join East Longmeadow Public Schools

Date: 6/18/2012

June 18, 2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

EAST LONGMEADOW — Two East Longmeadow public schools will welcome new principals in the fall, according to Superintendent Gordon Smith.

Lisa Dakin will take over as head of Meadowbrook Elementary School, while Michael Fredette has been named the new principal of Maple Shade Elementary School.

"Both of these educators come with a wealth of experience, especially with the tiered instruction model we have implemented here in East Longmeadow," Smith said.

Dakin and Fredette were selected out of a very large and competitive pool of candidates, he added.

"We were really happy with the amount of candidates and qualified candidates we had in both searches," he said. "There were a number of candidates who were sitting principals and had really valuable experience with tiered instruction, and with strategically planning for a school and moving a school forward. That was really impressive because that's not always the case."

Dakin joins the district after serving as the principal of Milton Bradley Elementary School in Springfield. Prior to that, she was an academic coach in both Springfield and Ludlow.

"Her experience combines well and connects well with where we are as a school district," Smith said. "We are finishing up our second year of moving into a tiered instructional model and we have finished our first full year of using interim assessments."

In addition to her experience with tiered instruction, Smith said that Dakin's engaging personality made her a good fit for the school and the district's administrative team.

"Her personality is one where she is an incredible listener and she is incredibly welcoming and open," Smith said. "I think when you're dealing with our gateway schools, you need that type of personality in a leader to model active listening and how to set a tone of collaboration and collegiality."

Dakin told Reminder Publications that the position at Maple Shade was "definitely something she could not pass up."

"The Pre-K to second grade early learning is something that I want to be a part of," she said. "I want to help build a foundation, as funny as it sounds, for college and career readiness."

Dakin said she was impressed with the district's implementation of the tiered instruction system.

"One of the things you want is to make sure students are making annual growth and catch-up growth," she said. "With early learning, if we catch deficiencies early and can apply intervention practices, we can avoid these gaps from continuing in the future because once a student is in the higher grades, it's that much harder to close the gap.

"At the same time, tiered instruction makes sure the kids who are performing above grade level coming in leave above grade level," she continued.

She also credited the district with a strong literacy program, the utilization of student data and strong parental support as other aspects of the job that were appealing.

Fredette comes from the New Hingham Regional Elementary School in Chesterfield.

"East Longmeadow has such a fantastic reputation and I've heard such great things about the district," he said. "I was looking for an larger elementary school, but not one so large that it would be overwhelming and I am also looking forward to working in a centralized district, coming from a regional district."

Fredette brings with him a wealth of experience in several different facets of school administration, Smith said.

"Mr. Fredette certainly comes with some really good experience. He comes from a regional school district where in his town, that school is the only school, so he operates in a number of different roles," he said. "Beyond being the building's principal, he is also the curriculum coordinator and in essence becomes sort of an assistant superintendent because he represents that one school and that school community and the community at large's interests.

"He has had some incredible experience in looking at it not only from the eyes of a principal and a building leader, but also has been able to look at it in a little bit broader picture," he continued.

Fredette said he felt his abilities when it came to managing budgets would be a unique skillset to the district's leadership team.

"I think my experience has given me the ability to analyze the allocation of resources," he said. "It's a job that requires a great deal of attention and I think that my abilities can be a strength for the school and the district."

Smith added that Fredette displayed an ability at New Hingham to create a culture of trust and collaboration with his staff to increase student achievement levels. Many of the programs used at New Hingham are also used in the East Longmeadow Public Schools.

"He is one who helped build that collaborative culture as they moved into tiered instruction and differentiated instruction," he said. "New Hingham Elementary used the readers' workshop model for literacy, which is the program we're using here and they also use math investigations, which is our math program. He has really good experience with both programs and a pretty incredible working knowledge."