By Ashley Downey

 

This school year we were notified about having a new principal, as our previous Principal, Mr. Modestow was appointed to be the interim superintendent for our district. After recently having had a conversation with Mr. Lanides, I have learned a few things about him that are worth sharing with you.

Mr. Lanides grew up in Leominster, Massachusetts, which is a city in Worcester County, and has previously worked as an assistant principal at Minnechaug High School. Mr. Lanides has also performed as a principal at other schools over the last five years and they include, Greenfield High School and Westfield High School. He finds it “exciting” and “fun” to come to a new school and to begin learning about the school. He says “it’s sorta like the first day of school when you’re learning about your new teachers, and it’s exciting.” Asking him about what plans he has for our school, Mr. Lanides stated that first he really wants to learn about our school because it’s very important for him to understand the teachers,the students, and the culture. He would then like to see what can be done about our limited arts program, since he has heard many conversations about seeing the arts more fully developed in our curriculum. That’s something that Mr. Lanides would love to do, and has in plan for our school. He does enjoy being principal so far, and the most meaningful things about his job are, the people that he works with, the adults, and the kids. He firmly emphasized that his commitment to our students and our school is paramount when he said, “for me that’s everything, the level of discourse that we have as teachers, talking about education.” We welcome Principal Mr. Lanides to our school and to our community, and we look forward to learning more about him and working with him.