Nearly 200 Students Go Back To School Early To Meet New Principal

A popsicle or your principal? Where to go first?

stood in front of the last Tuesday afternoon, at what would be after school if school was in session, and extended his hand to students, many with a popsicle in the other hand.

  The event was a way for him to meet students and their parents before school starts. He took the job after school ended in June.

Several students, including Matthew Qualey, said they came to the greet and treat because of their parents. Matthew’s mom, Kelly, and dad, Stephen, told Matthew, who’s going into fourth grade, and his sister, Meghan, who will be a first grader there, that they should go to meet the principal, Matthew said.  So Matthew, his sister, parents and even his older sister, Kelsey, who is moving from the Malcolm White to the stopped by.

“He’s nice,” Matthew said of Stark, though he couldn’t offer a reason why.

He’s easy to talk to, said Matthew’s mother.

He smiles a lot, like you, Matthew’s father commented.

Yes, Matthew’s dad is the brother—the “much younger brother”—of Principal Tom Qualey, Matthew’s dad emphasized, laughing.

Brooke Lynch, who will be going into third grade this school year, didn’t come just because of her parents.

“I wanted to meet my new principal,” she said, “because I didn’t know if I’d like him.”

Not to worry, Mr. Stark.

“I think he’s really nice,” Brooke concluded after shaking his hand and talking with him for a few minutes.

He spoke directly to her, Brooke’s mother, Beth commented.

Kim Ciasullo, who teaches fourth grade at the Malcolm White School, brought her three children, Alyssandra, a fifth grader, Arianna, a fourth grader and Emma, a second grader, to meet their new principal. Mom had already met him.

“My own children said how friendly he was,” Ciasullo said, “and how much he smiles.”

Mom Tracy McCall described Stark at “very cordial and interesting,” a Stark spark.

Stark asked each child who came up to him his or her name. He also asked each student what they liked best about the school. Some were comfortable when they met him; some, less so.

When one child dropped a popsicle, Stark empathized.

“Bummer,” he said.

The before-school-starts event “makes it a reality that summer does come to an end,” commented Christine Fernald, who was sitting with her husband, Steve, on the wall outside the school.  They have a fourth grader, Ashley, at the Malcolm White School.

How many people came to meet the new principal? Stark headed over to a cooler holding Popsicles, did a couple of computations based on the number of Popsicles in a box, the number of boxes at the start of the event and near the end. Probably a couple hundred students, he concluded.