NORTHAMPTON – Growing up in the small town of Mt. Vernon, Maine, Daniel Stern had two things on his mind on where we he wanted to go to school.
“I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and I wanted to play sports,” Stern said. “There was nowhere Maine where I could do both, based on the programs they had at the time.”
Stern instead decided to enroll at Westfield State University, bringing him to the Pioneer Valley where he has remained since, currently living in Easthampton. Though his educational career got off to a rocky start, working at two consecutive facilities where operations ceased within one year of his joining, Stern persisted and now finds himself in the role of Bridge Street Elementary School’s new principal. He officially joined the school district on July 1 to take over from Carol Ruyffelaert, who stepped down after 24 years working as a teacher and principal at the school.
“There’s a really strong sense of community, a sense of belonging here,” Stern said of the first impressions of his new job. “From every sense I can gather, we have an incredibly strong teaching faculty and dedicated staff.”
Prior to becoming the principal at Bridge Street, Stern worked as the assistant principal at Mountain View School in Easthampton as well as a program coordinator at the Collaborative for Educational Services (CES) school in Northampton. Though he began his career working the field of special education, he credited his time in Easthampton in making want to pivot to elementary education.
“I’ve spent the vast majority of my life in education with high school students, and students who are in some pretty downtrodden situations,” Stern said. “So having the opportunity to come to elementary schools, and be a part of students’ early education life, is very attractive to me.”
Once the school year starts on Aug. 27, Stern will oversee a school of 268 students with a little more than two dozen teaching faculty. Stern said his biggest priority for the school year will be to integrate himself within the school community and to support staff in the best way he can.
“The biggest thing this year is to learn, learn about the teachers, learn about the staff, learn about the community,” Stern said. “Everybody keeps asking me, ‘how’s it going?’ I think it’s going OK.”
Stern also said he had “never met such enthusiasm” for a school than he has before arriving at Bridge Street.
“People just have come out of the woodwork with appreciation for the people who have been working in this building,” he said. “So I think my job is to just kind of help them the best I can.”
Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.
