Dedham Middle School gets a new principal

After 16 years as a teacher and educator in Waltham, Debra Gately says leaving her hometown to become the new principal of Dedham Middle School is "somewhat a leap of faith."

"But I knew that if I was going to leave, it was going to be for the right opportunity, and I feel (this) opportunity, moving to Dedham, is that," she said last night to the School Committee, at whose meeting she was introduced by Superintendent of Schools June Doe.

Gately, who has been the shared assistant principal of Waltham's two middle schools for the past two years, officially assumes her post July 1, but will actually start work in Dedham July 6. For her first two weeks she will work full-time during the day, and put in four additional hours, from 3 to 7 p.m., in Waltham.

Doe said the staff in Waltham is "very proud of her, and very reluctant to see her go."

"But we are delighted to have her coming on board. She's taught for 16 years in Waltham, and is a very strong middle school educator," Doe said.

Tracy Driscoll, who served with fellow School Committee member Kevin Coughlin on the search committee, said Gately rose to the top of a pool of strong candidates.

"She had researched Dedham inside and out. It was very impressive," Driscoll said.

"I am so thrilled and excited to be part of the Dedham public schools," Gately told the school board. "I live for what I do, and it's really something that I enjoy doing."

After graduating from Bridgewater State College in 1993, Gately, 37, began her career at Waltham High School. Later she was a seventh- and eighth-grade history teacher, and served as the district coordinator of Waltham's mentoring program, helping new teachers between kindergarten and twelfth grade transition into the system. While fulfilling those roles, Gately earned a master's degree in history from Bridgewater, and another master's in educational leadership from Framingham State College.

After becoming the shared assistant principal of the Kennedy and McDevitt middle schools a few years ago, Gately worked with the administration at both places on scheduling, teacher evaluation, and supervision of special education and English language learners programs.

Gately said she came to Dedham for the last day of school on Monday, meeting teachers, students, and parents "and just was overwhelmingly impressed with everything that was going on at the school that day."

She told the committee that probably within the next week she would be working on an online survey in which parents could give their feedback, comments, questions and concerns about the middle school. She also plans to send a hard copy with her letter to parents.

"The first three months without a doubt is going to be getting to know everyone, getting to know the system, getting to know the faculty and the students and the parents, and really looking at what the goals are," she remarked.

Gately succeeds Tim Ruggere, 43, who since the beginning of this month has been transitioning from Dedham to his new position as head of Ottoson Middle School in Arlington.

Gately first became acquainted with Dedham Middle School because she has spent time there as part of her doctoral program at Northeastern University. She said she was "thoroughly impressed" with the 3-year-old facility, she told reporters before heading to a pair of eighth-grade dances in Waltham last night.

She said she wants to become part of Dedham, and plans to meet this summer with all of the elementary school principals to get their sense of the transition to middle school education, and meet with Dedham High Principal Jake Santamaria to talk about students' transition between her school and his.

Gately called herself the "proud daughter" of two retired Waltham city employees - her mother is the former director of the Council on Aging, and her father is a former health inspector. "We're basically from the city, lived in the city, died by the city," she said.

Gately, who graduated from the Waltham public schools, including its high school in 1989, noted that she has spent 30 years of her life in that system. But Dedham - which aligns well demographically and in terms of student and parent involvement with Waltham - is "the best possible situation" for her to move to, she said.

"A lot of the teachers that I've met so far at the middle school have been fantastic. They're just so, so into what's going on there," she said. "I kind of call it moving out of my comfort zone. For the first time in my life, I'll be a commuter."

Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.