by David Flint
“We will be ready, and school will open on time!” Berlin High School’s new Principal was looking forward last Friday to starting the school year and was enthusiastic about the “tremendous pool of talent he has found here. Dennis Healy said he met the new Guidance Counselor and new teachers for music, social studies, science and technology at orientation last week and found a lot of fresh experiences and new ideas. That, combined with the talent and energy that he said is already here, would be “a formidable combination to help kids advance better.” “I’m very optimistic and looking forward to a very good year,” he added.
Healy grew up on Long Island and later attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and history. In the early 1990s he received a Master of Social Work degree from SUNY-Albany. He also has administration and building principal certificates from the College of St. Rose.
His work history has largely been with disadvantaged and disturbed youth. His first job right out of college was working with young gang members in Brooklyn. He has worked at and managed residential centers and group homes and was for five years the Director of Residential Services at McQuade Children’s Services in New Windsor, NY, near Newburgh. Hired as a social worker at HFM BOCES serving Hamilton, Fulton and Montgomery counties, he stayed there for 16 years, becoming the Coordinator of Pupil Services. He worked primarily with behaviorally challenged students and developed and marketed a Career Assessment Program to establish student profiles facilitating placement in the Career & Technical Center or in internships.
Healy said he had been looking for employment in a rural school district where he could apply his expertise in teaching, crisis intervention and cultivating and optimizing a good school climate, facilitating the building of a community within the school. He considered Berlin to be a good size school. He remarked on what he said was Berlin’s comprehensive selection process for new principals. He was quite impressed with the behavior, discussion and excellent questions on the part of members of the selection panel that included students as well as community members, teachers, non-instructional staff and the School Board. The process and the people involved, he said, made him feel comfortable with his decision to come to Berlin.
Healy said he will spend some time assessing the situation at Berlin, speaking with all staff members and getting their take on things. “We will work together to meet the challenges and create a positive educational experience for faculty, staff and students. If there is a problem, the object is not to fix blame but rather to fix it and move on. I want to optimize achievement and help students to learn to think critically so that they can apply their learning to life experience in the future,” he said.
Healy will be the fifth High School principal at Berlin in eight years, following Fran DelSignore and before her Marla Yudin, Jeannie Henry and James Bedford. He noted that there has not been as much turnover at the elementary level here, but he believes that consistency is important in an educational setting, so he has made a commitment to being here “for quite a while.”
Cathy Allain Takes Over At The Middle School
Cathy Allain is the new Principal at the Berlin Middle School. District residents have become familiar with her as the Principal of Grafton Elementary School for the past two years. Before that she was Principal of the Hoosick Falls Elementary School. Allain is replacing Interim Middle School Principal Patricia O’Grady who in April replaced Ed Kilmartin, the first Middle School Principal appointed last year. O’Grady will now function as Interim Principal at Grafton.
Allain said she loved her position at Grafton but when asked by Interim Schools Superintendent Charlotte Gregory to take over the Middle School she said she would be happy to help out. The Berlin School District, she said, is a very welcoming place to work, and she believes she could be happy at any location.
Allain believes the decision the Board made last year to more clearly set off the Middle School from the High School was a good one as it places a true focus on grades six, seven and eight and on the particular needs of these students and what they need to do to transition to the High School. These students, she said, need to develop many academic and social skills as they change and develop. One key to the success of the new school, she said, is the Steering Committee established by Kilmartin to determine specific needs and program changes. The Committee comprises teachers, parents and community members. It has good representation, she said, and is a very active committee. They look at test scores, student interests and teachers’ particular talents and seek to develop what a Middle School should look like, and specifically a Middle School in the Berlin community. Allain said she has already met with the staff and they have started to map out the critical issues for the coming year. The State standardized test scores are certainly one of these critical issues, and the Steering Committee will be working on ways to improve test taking skills as well as academic achievement.
Another issue that concerns Allain is the dropout rate at the high school which she said could be improved. The high school dropout rate, she said, is a function of an attitude that starts at the middle school level. Thus it is important to find out what middle school student interests are and help staff to become more connected with students, perhaps by developing more opportunities for discussion in after school activities and enrichment programs.
Allain said they would be ready to start school on September 4. Last Friday preparations were under way for an orientation night for sixth-graders and their parents. Among other things, students were to be introduced to their handbooks, helped with their schedules and shown their lockers and how to use their combination locks. “I’m looking forward enthusiastically,” Allain said, “and I would appreciate parent input. They can contact me at callain@berlincentral.org .”