NORTHFIELD — With a permanent superintendent now in place, the Pioneer Valley Regional School District has named longtime Turners Falls High School math teacher John Carter as Pioneer Valley Regional School’s interim principal for the upcoming school year.
With more than 20 years of teaching experience, Carter said he plans to use his background in the classroom as a way to build relationships within the school and greater community, which he added could help Pioneer mend some wounds it has experienced over the years due to high administrative turnover and declining enrollment.
“My No. 1 focus is to build strong relationships with the staff and the students in the community. I don’t think anything can happen without relationships,” Carter said, adding that he plans to have an active presence within the school and in the community. “It’s a community that is still healing a little bit from some reductions in staff and having to deal with another new administrator.”
Hiring Carter as interim principal, which was announced July 13 following an abbreviated search process, comes after the district opted to let former Principal Kevin Burke’s contract expire at the end of last school year. Burke had signed a three-year contract with the district in 2019. When asked for more information at the time, Pioneer Superintendent Patricia Kinsella said the district does not comment on personnel matters.
After teaching for two decades, Carter decided he wanted to make a career shift from the classroom to academic leadership and enrolled at American International College, where he earned a certificate of advanced graduate study in May 2019. He said he applied to be Pioneer’s interim principal because it’s a smaller school, which he is used to working in.
“It gives me a chance to get accustomed to the fast-paced nature of this position,” Carter said. “It’s a smaller school, which I love smaller schools. … I love being able to walk down the hallway and know every student by name and have something I can chat with them about.”
Carter said that beyond creating strong relationships with everyone in the school, Pioneer needs to work on retaining its eighth grade students and ensuring they have access to a great education.
“We need to really focus on making sure that we show them that this is the school that they want to choose to be at,” Carter said, adding that he wants to make himself available to hear people’s concerns and feedback, to “be somebody that the community — whether it’s the staff, or the students or families — can turn to and feel that they’re going to be heard and that their concerns are going to be addressed.”
Looking back on his teaching experience, Carter said his favorite part about education is the relationships that are built between staff and the students that grow up right in front of your eyes.
“It’s just the time that I spend with the students and getting to know them as individuals, and those relationships that I build with them,” Carter said. “The curriculum is important, but helping them learn to be good people and be successful in life — and I don’t mean that they drive a Maserati or whatever — but they’re good people, they can deal with life’s challenges, that’s the reward for me.”
Carter hopes to work in close contact with Pioneer’s teachers and help elevate them to an even greater level.
“I worked with some phenomenal teachers and just knew that if they had the right kind of support and leadership, they could go from excellent to out of this world,” Carter said. “And that’s what I want to do. I want to support teachers to get to their very best.”
Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.