Underwood looks forward wearing to many hats at Williams Middle School

Aug. 25, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

Thomas Underwood
Reminder Publications photo by Chris Goudreau

LONGMEADOW – Williams Middle School has a new assistant principal, Thomas Underwood, who started working in the district July 1. Underwood succeeded Jean Fontaine in the position, who now serves as director of pupil services.

“So far, the school and the community have been really supportive, which has been nice,” Underwood, the former assistant principal of Great Falls Middle School and Turners Falls High School in the Gill-Montague Regional School District, told Reminder Publications.

He added he’s worked in education for 30 years – he started as a teacher at Landmark School in Beverly, which specializes in educating students with language-based learning disabilities and later worked as the school’s adjustment counselor. He has a master’s degree in education and another in social work.

His role as assistant principal at Williams also entails coordinating special education at the school, Underwood said.

“That means that my day can be very varied, which I love,” he explained. “On the vice principal side there’s some of the traditional discipline, hall duties [and] lunch duties. I’ll be spending some time doing teacher evaluations in the classroom, which I really love. And then the other side of my job is taking care of the special education students – tracking and making sure we’re in compliance with [the Individualized Education Programs] and 504 plans and just ensuring that all our students with some challenges are getting the services that they need.”

Underwood explained 504 plans are for students who need a few accommodations in the classroom to make sure students reach their full potential.

He said he is looking forward to meeting students at the start of the school year.

“That’s why I got into education early on – I love working with kids,” Underwood noted. “All of my jobs over the years have been somehow working with children.”

He added some of his goals as assistant principal include getting to know the students and collaborating with his colleagues at Williams.

“There’s a lot of long-term excellent teachers here,” Underwood said. “[Williams Middle School Principal Taylor Wrye] is new, this is going to be his second year, so we’re both kind of new, but I’m really looking forward to supporting Taylor and his job as principal [and] helping out in any ways I can.”

Underwood, a resident of Northampton, said he’s also excited to learn more about the Longmeadow community.

“I’m not from here, so I’m learning about the community as I go,” he noted. 

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