New Regional School Unit 2 Superintendent Virgel Hammonds will make facilitating school and town cooperation a priority during his tenure, he said in an interview with The Lincoln County News this week.
“I really think partnership is vital,” said Hammonds, “It’s not a school system and a town system, it’s both. We’re all in this together.”
According to Hammonds, partnering town with school will help determine what is done well and what needs to improve. Such cooperation will facilitate individual success and help develop children to the best of their ability.
RSU 2 includes Dresden Elementary School, the only school from Lincoln County represented in the Unit. Hammonds attended his first board meeting as superintendent there.
“People take a lot of pride in Dresden Elementary. The small staff really loves the kids,” said Hammonds.
Speaking in front of the Dresden Board of Selectmen Aug. 15, Hammonds said he hoped to have a conversation with town residents at a future special town meeting. He also encouraged any RSU 2 educator, student, or parent to meet with him, at any location, on issues concerning their schools.
Before becoming superintendent, Hammonds served as principal at Lindsay High School in Lindsay, Cal. Under his tenure, Lindsay High went from a number one rated school, considered the lowest rating by California’s Department of Education, to a number six rated school. It is currently a number eight.
Hammonds attributes the success to hard working educators, students, and parents.
“Every single child was being successful every single day,” he said.
His role, he said, was empowering teachers and students to do their best.
“I look forward to bringing that process here,” said Hammonds.
Before moving to California to take a vice principal’s job at Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, his alma mater, Hammonds served as an English and Spanish teacher in Massachusetts and New Hampshire schools He served in that capacity until 2006, when he took the job at Lindsay High School.
He first visited RSU 2 in 2010 as a consultant for the Alaska-based Re-Inventing Schools Coalition, a group that has helped train Maine teachers in standards-based education. He left with an appreciation for the RSU 2 system.
“They’re on their way up and doing a lot of great things,” he said.
Hammonds currently lives in West Gardiner with his wife Amy, a nurse, and their 2-year-old daughter Maya.