Wrye chosen to succeed Collins as Williams Middle School principal

Date: 7/2/2015

LONGMEADOW – The district recently selected Taylor Wrye, an assistant principal at Joyce Middle School in Woburn, to be Williams Middle School’s new principal.

Wrye will succeed retiring Christopher Collins, who served as head of the school for seven years.

“[Wrye] is extremely enthusiastic and has great knowledge of middle school students and staff,” Superintendent of Schools Marie Doyle said. “He was well received by as evidence by feedback from parents and staff after his visit to our campus.”

Doyle said Wrye has served as the assistant principal of Joyce Middle School for three years. Wrye’s first-year salary is $95,000, less than Collins’ salary.

“We hire new principals based on their experience and because he’s a relatively new principal, we’re bringing him in at $95,000,” she noted.

Doyle said Wrye “really wanted to come to Longmeadow,” which she considers exciting.

“He’s known for his technology,” she stated. “He does a lot with Twitter in terms of informing parents about what’s happening at the school. He’s invested in high quality staff development and he seems like he would be an excellent role model for our students.”

Wrye’s Twitter account can be found at https://twitter.com/WryeWMS. He has 1,247 people following him on the site and has posted 1,697 tweets since he joined in December 2012.

Doyle said Collins will be greatly missed within the Longmeadow community.

“Chris Collins has been a dynamic leader,” she added. “He’s been loved by students, staff, and parents. He’s had a great vision for staff development as well as building a solid middle school. Chris oversaw the development of an advisory program where students spend time in small groups being nurtured by staff. Chris was an ideal principal. He’ll be sorely missed by Longmeadow Public Schools.”

Wrye will start on Aug. 1 and Collins will stay until the first week of September to work on staff development until his retirement, Doyle said.