school desk with books and blocks

Dear Green Meadow Families,

I hope that this letter finds you in summer-mode, enjoying the longer days and a slower pace.  I'm writing to introduce myself as the interim principal of leadership and operations at the Green Meadow School. 

As I begin work at Green Meadow, it will mark my forty-fifth year of working with children. thirty-seven of those years have been spent in public education.  I began my career working with middle-school children in an alternative school setting.  I left to pursue graduate studies at Boston University. After graduate school, I taught special education students in Hudson for sixteen years. I then moved to Lowell as a middle school assistant principal. This was followed by a principalship in Townsend.  I returned to Lowell as principal of the Rogers School. This position challenged me, but it was also a job I truly loved. The Rogers School was abruptly closed and I became a principal in Brookline.  

I retired in 2010.  I enjoyed the freedom that retirement brought, but I missed being in schools. When I was offered an interim principalship in Sudbury, I leaped at the opportunity.  After three years of interim work in Sudbury, I was invited to lead two schools in Nashua where I spent portions of the last two years. 

My wife, Kate, and I have been married for 40 years.  We have two grown children. Our son, Brendan, lives in Saint Paul.  He recently earned a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, and is now officially Dr. McGillicuddy!  Our daughter, Molly, is a high school writing teacher.  She and her husband, Tim, live in Hubbardston, and are expecting their first child in early August.

I believe the job of educating children is a sacred trust. We, parents and teachers, are preparing the future generation.  Every moment and every interaction in the life of a child is important. My work as an educator has brought me great satisfaction and deep joy throughout my career.  It continues to do so. I have been blessed. 

I look forward to getting to know your children when they return to school at the end of August.  I would also like to meet as many of you as possible before the school year begins. To do so, I have scheduled two meet-and-greet opportunities.  On August 12, I will host a morning coffee at 9:15 and later that day, there will be an evening event at 7:00 P.M. I look forward to meeting each of you at one of these events. 

I will sign off with a well-loved poem.  It speaks to the commonality of the precious lives that have been entrusted to the care of all of us.

Shoulders

by Naomi Shihab Nye

A man crosses the street in the rain, 

stepping gently, looking two times north and south

because his son is asleep on his shoulder.

No car must splash him

No car drive too near his shadow.

This man carries the world’s most sensitive cargo

but he’s not marked.

Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE

HANDLE WITH CARE.

His ear fills up with breathing.

He hears the hum of a boy’s dream 

deep inside him.

We’re not going to be able 

to live in this world

if we’re not willing to do what he’s doing

with one another.

The road will only be wide.

The rain will never stop falling.

Enjoy your children,

Tim McGillicuddy