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Date: 8/30/2021
HOLYOKE – The Holyoke Public Schools (HPS) have officially announced their new executive director of school leadership as Jacqueline Glasheen.
Born and raised in Holyoke, Glasheen started her teaching career in 1992. This is her 29th year with HPS.
Glasheen originally taught special education at John J. Lynch Middle School before getting her administration license at UMass Amherst. Her first assistant principal job was at Marcella R. Kelly Elementary School and then William G. Morgan School.
She transitioned to the role of principal at Kelly School and then principal at Edward Nelson White School before accepting her new role as executive director of school leadership.
As the Executive Director of School Leadership, Glasheen said that she will be working with the seven elementary schools to support their principals. This role was created a few years back to help with this additional support.
“Previously, you had a superintendent who had a cabinet, but your school principals were pretty much on their own. They did receive support from the superintendent, but that’s a huge job and he can’t do that across 13 schools. So they created two executive director positions and I am overseeing seven elementary schools and supporting those principals in supporting their teachers,” said Glasheen.
According to Glasheen, she loved her role as principal of E.N. White School and knew that this position would align with supporting other administrators.
“It was really exciting to support people in a job that I love. Knowing how to run a school, having some experience behind me in that, and then being able to support my colleagues was just really a nice thing to me,” she said.
After officially accepting the position on July 1, Glasheen said she is looking forward to being in schools every day and helping strong leaders succeed.
“I’m excited about really pulling the best pieces of my principal cohort and sharing those best practices across the seven schools. We have so many strong leaders doing so many good things and being able to share that across schools so we can learn from each other is exciting,” she said.
After a stressful and unpredictable 2020, Glasheen offered advice for both students and parents for the upcoming school year.
“You just have to be flexible and you have to assume positive intentions in all decisions that people are making because everybody’s decisions are based on their own families and their own experiences, especially in light of COVID-19… We need to support families and families need to support us in order to be successful,” she said.