New principal recalls roots, prepares for new challenges
By Caitlyn Kelleher

Richard Mankey

Two days before students walked through the door of North Middlesex Regional High School to be greeted by their new principal Richard Mankey, he was reminding himself of his roots.

"I drove to my elementary school and looked in the window of my first grade classroom," Mankey said, of his morning on Sunday, Aug. 27. "I looked back at all of those people that effected my life in more ways then I knew then. It reminded me of how important what we do inside these four walls are."

He said he told the high school teachers this story on their first day back with the addition that, "there may come a time 40 years from now that someone is looking in your classroom windows."

The district appealed to Mankey because it appeared to be ready to take learning to the next level, meaning teachers, school committee members and community members were ready to push the typical limits.

"My first few days have proven that to be the case," he said. "There is a lot of energy here to accomplish great things."

Mankey, 50, previously served as an assistant principal in Hollis, NH. He is married with a 4-year-old son and he and his family still live in Hollis.

He said he has been looking forward to his position as principal because "you are in a much better position to raise the issues of teaching and educational styles."

He began teaching in 1978 after graduating from Salem State College. He said he knew he'd be a teacher because of his love of history and civics and his love of school.

That love of school has not only kept Mankey within the four walls of high school as a teacher and then as an administrator, but it has also kept him in the classroom seat on and off during his career.

Mankey earned a master's degree in history from Northeastern University, in Boston, in 1983, a law degree from Suffolk Law School in 1989 and a certificate of graduate studies from Revere College in 2006.

"I was enjoying it and I was motivated," he said.

Although the studies did make him less than sympathetic to one of the plights of his students - too much homework.

"I could give them a tale," he said.

While he was studying for the bar exam during the summer of 1989 he worked in a general practice law firm and that was when he had to make the decision of whether he wanted to switch careers.

"I wasn't ready to leave education," he said. "This is a much more satisfying career for me. It suited my desires to be in education rather than to be in law."

He says he doesn't regret either the decision to get the law degree or the decision not to practice law. The education he received has helped him be a better teacher and administrator.

He learned following a process consistently is important for those obeying the rules and for those enforcing the rules. Also, while working criminal defense cases he said he meet an interesting array of people.

"There are a range of factors that are invaluable in anyone person, all of which impact them," he said.

Focusing on all of the components that make a student, is something Mankey says is important. It helps to give the students some ownership in the decisions that are getting made in the school.

"They have a role in whatever this school is," he said.

This is the type of approach he plans to use to address issues that have been raised over the summer such as smoking in the bathrooms and on the school grounds.

"Part of it is finding out the extent of the problem," he said, then it is engaging the students in solving the problem.

He would also like to update the Web site and to connect more to the community.

"I expect we will continue to explore the issues of block (scheduling) in general and here at North Middlesex specifically," Mankey said. "We're not going to find a 'perfect' schedule, but there are better schedules."

He said he would also like to address the failure rate in the freshman class.

"Students leave the middle school which is warm, nurturing and team structured," he said. "The transition can be jarring for some. If we can get them through grade nine then the likelihood of them graduating goes up exponentially."

-  - Caitlyn Kelleher can be reached at (978) 827-3386, ext. 15, or e-mail: caitlynkelleher@aol.com