Updated: Changes in Store at Dows Lane Elementary School

**Editor's Note:  When this article originally ran last week, I misquoted Dr. Flynn-Maguire saying that she did not LIKE Math Trailblazers.  What she said was she "didn't KNOW Math Trailblazers, and had yet to form any opinion on it."  She is currently in the process of familiarizing herself with the curriculum and will be happy to discuss how both parents and the school can work together to get students performing to the best of their abilities.**

-Lizzie Hedrick, Local Editor

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"There are only two rules for Principal's Coffee," Dows Lane's interim principal for the 2010-11 school said today in front of more than 30 parents and kids.  "The first is that you can't ask about your individual kids and the second is that you can't comment about specific teachers."

Anything else, she said, was fair game.

Incoming interim Dows Lane Principal Mary Flynn-Maguire met with more than 20 parents and kids this afternoon after meeting about 15 at a similar event last week.  Going forward she will hold coffee meetings monthly for parents, opening the channels for discussion about the curriculum, parent involvement, and even school spirit.

Having experienced such rapid turn-over with elementary school administrators--previous principal Renay Sadis was with the district only two years--parents came to Dows Lane today hoping to quell anxiety over how their kids' educations would progress.

"People keep asking me if I intend to keep things just as they are because I'm an interim principal," Flynn-Maguire said. "I will most definitely not; to me, that's stagnation."

The change Flynn-Maguire cited first was the math curriculum.

**"In Irvington, you use Math Trailblazers," she said. "I don't know Math Trailblazers yet.  But as former math teacher, improving math skills is a huge goal for me. One thing I will ask is that parents work on math facts at home. They should make it fun."**

Another change Flynn-Maguire said she wanted to encourage was reducing distractions in the classroom.

"I make it a rule that unless it's an emergency, teachers will not be disrupted after 11:30 a.m.," she said. "It sounds like a small thing, but you'll be amazed at how much of a difference it will make."

After a few minutes, parents began to broach the subject of searching for a permanent Dows Lane principal.

Flynn-Maguire is uncertain how the district will involve her in the selection process, which will start as early as December, but promised to help find a great candidate.

"It's all about finding a match," she said. "I don't know whether the superintendent will want me on the selection committee, but I will definitely act as an advisor."

Besides curriculum, parents were concerned with whether Flynn-Maguire intended to reinstate some of the spirit days, Bulldog Days,  that were removed from the calendar during the last two school years.

"My daughter Bella was in Kindergarten during Joe Rodriguez's last year here," Kira Smith, a mother of two students in the district, said. "When Renay Sadis came in and was less supportive of Bulldog Day and spirit events, she was disappointed. It's not that she had a bad feeling about the school last year, but she did ask, 'When will we have Bulldog Day again.'"

Flynn-Maguire responded that she would "definitely hold monthly assemblies," and make sure all kids could sing the school song.

"To me that's the whole essence of a community," she said.

As the patient kids began to get restless and parents ran out of pressing questions, Flynn-Maguire closed the meeting saying, "Don't assume I'm brilliant, because I'm not.  I can appreciate kids who have to work hard in school, because I was one of them.  And I believe kids who work hard grow up to be the best adults."