Q&A: Boyden School Principal Brendan Dearborn

Walpole Patch recently sat down with new Boyden School principal Brendan Dearborn to ask him how he is enjoying his new job in Walpole.

Before coming to Boyden, Dearborn was the principal at West Elementary School in Stoughton for the past four years. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education at Stonehill College, a Masters in Education from the University of Massachusetts, and a second Masters in Organizational Management from Endicott College.

Here are his thoughts on being the new guy:

How are things going so far?

Principal Dearborn: Things are going great. We had a great opening to school and for me personally I’m getting settled into the school nicely. It still hasn’t been that long but the families and the staff and the students have  been wonderful just welcoming me and making sure that I understand how things go and keeping me focused on what I need to be focused on. And that’s students and making sure that we’re finding the best ways to meet the students’ needs.

What do you like about Boyden School?

PD: I love the community feel. It has a great community feel amongst the families all being invested and involved in the school. Our open house night was packed with people. That was great to see people bringing their siblings back, their moms, their dads, their grandparents, their families, whoever they may be living with into the school.

You can really tell it’s a good community feel amongst the families coming in as well as within the staff. The staff works really well together.  Everybody’s got a common goal about students and making sure that we’re finding the best ways to teach these students.

And most of all the kids have been just magnificent; they’ve just been great. Really a kind of seamless transition for me. Mr. Dearborn is here and it’s great and they’ve been a great, great help to me. I’ve been really leaning on my fifth graders they know the school well.  So it’s been great.

What do you like about Walpole so far?

PD: From the minute I walked into Walpole from my interview process for the interview team and then meeting with the superintendent and the assistant superintendent, everybody has very professional around education and everybody seems to be focused on finding the best ways to meet kids’ needs.

Everybody that I’ve come across has said great things about the Walpole Public Schools. Everybody seems to be wanting to work together, help one another out. It really has, again, I go back to that community feel. It’s really been a great community to be a part of. 

Any thoughts on coming in right after an override that involved the schools?

PD: Not being part of the override and not seeing what it looked like prior to the override I don’t have all that much background on it. I am very impressed that the town of Walpole and the citizens of Walpole and the parents of Walpole were able to pass an override in these times. It really does show their commitment to education and their commitment to the kids in the town. Not knowing the history and all of it, how it came to be just looking from an outsider’s point of view, wow that’s pretty impressive that everybody here is that invested in the schools and that invested in the kids.

What has been the most challenging part so far?

PD: Not always having the answer. When somebody asks me a pretty simple question and I’m like ‘Okay, how is that done?’ or so-and-so called from this office and I don’t know who that so-and-so is. It’s kind of the simple things that I almost took for granted in the other atmosphere I was in at a different school. I kind of knew how things run, knew this person, knew that person and now it’s just coming in with kind of a blank slate, and me having to learn from the beginning…that’s been the biggest challenge for me. Not day to day but different events to different events.

Give an example of something rewarding where you said to yourself ‘I’m glad I took this job.'

PD: I think one of the things that made me really think that I made the right decision was in our first staff meeting, my first back to school staff meeting and it was kind of the first time I had the whole staff together and at that moment we were talking and there was a lot of laughter and a lot of camaraderie and I felt like once I left there that this is a good staff that I’m going to be working with. We’re going to work hard together and we’re going have ups and downs and all around but everybody seems to be focused on one thing and to want to have some fun and laugh. Keep us focused but also have a good time as well.

What is your plan for Boyden School?

PD: This year it’s really learning for me. It’s learning about Boyden and learning about traditions that they’ve done in the past, carrying those things on, understanding how things run within the Boyden community and within Boyden School. And then looking and trying to enhance some things that I think that I can bring to the table once I have a good understanding of things. I don’t want to come in and make changes to things that I don’t even know about yet. So this year to me is to learn about it and ask some questions and ask some feedback from teachers and families to see things that they want to see enhanced in the school. There may not be any changes that need to be made but then have enough background knowledge and enough information before making a change or a switch to something that I understand why I’m changing it and not just because I can change it.

Are you comfortable with the class sizes at Boyden?

PD: I am, very much especially hearing about pre-override and post-override. I’m very happy with the class sizes here. I think there’s very reasonable number. Due to the override we were able to add some teachers to lower those class sizes, which is huge. All groups of children are manageable but when you have a smaller group of student’s it’s more manageable than an extra 10. So that’s able to help us handle students individually more, work on some of the individualized skills, break up into small groups and even the learning atmosphere as a whole walking into a room with 10 less students it’s a little bit more comfortable. And I’ve heard that from staff here at Boyden already. It’s only 21 and not 29 and that’s been almost a relief to them. I know they worked hard in the years prior to that because had success here at the school. So I know obviously they would make it work but with the smaller class sizes it makes them be able to enhance some of their instruction even more.