3 Wayland School Leaders Announce Departures

WAYLAND, MA — Three top Wayland Public Schools administrators will leave their jobs in some form soon after a wave of departures revealed this week.

On Tuesday afternoon, Wayland Middle School principal Betsy Gavron emailed parents to notify them she would take a one-year sabbatical over the 2023-24 school year. Gavron told parents she has long been stretched between work and family commitments, but is now caring for an aging mother-in-law. Gavron said she would assess by the end of the next school year whether she would return.

"As I enter into the second half of my 25th year at [Wayland Middle School] I find myself tired and in need of a change. While I will have to work, given that I have a freshman in college to support, I need to take some time away from WMS to support Grammy and try something that is less emotionally taxing," Gavron's email said.

A few hours later, Wayland Superintendent Omar Easy in a short message to parents said Happy Hollow principal Tricia O’Reilly would leave for a job in another school district.

"I want to thank O’Reilly for her many years of service to the Wayland Public Schools, and wish her nothing but the very best in her future," the message said.

Meanwhile, Wayland Assistant Superintendent Parry Graham was selected to become the new superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools. Lincoln School Committee Chair John MacLachlan confirmed Graham had accepted the job.

"There is certainly a bittersweet element to leaving Wayland because I have loved working here, but I am very excited to have the opportunity to serve as the next superintendent in Lincoln," Graham said Wednesday.

Neither Easy nor Wayland School Committee Chair Chris Ryan immediately returned requests for comment about the departures Wednesday morning.

At a Jan. 25 school committee, Easy did discuss staff leaving the district in response to comments made during public comment at a previous meeting. Teachers and administrators leaving the education field is a nationwide problem, he said, not entirely unique to Wayland.

"I want to stress that if my leadership as an open, honest and direct communicator who values mutual accountability, takes pride in providing a safe, equitable environment for all of our teachers and students, and making sure this district's priorities are in line and expecting the best out of all our teachers as they have been giving us?" he said. "If that's my leadership driving people out of this district, then so be it, because our students expect and deserve the best."

Easy added that one parent said criticism of his leadership is not about race. But he said there is an issue around race in the district because he was publicly called a racial slur in December.

"If my leadership is driving people away from this district, then they don't deserve to be teaching the kids," he emphasized.

O'Reilly took over at Happy Hollow after more than 25 years at Wayland Public Schools as a teacher at Claypit Hill Elementary, and as the district's math and science curriculum director. Graham took the assistant superintendent job at the end of the 2018 school year when Brad Crozier left to become the superintendent in Sudbury. He was the principal at Nashoba Regional High School before Wayland. Gavron served as a math teacher at Wayland Middle School for a decade before becoming the school's assistant principal. She's been the principal since 2010.