Search Begins for New McGlynn Elementary School Principal

Pat Buker, right, has worked for the schools for forty years.

Story Updated 9:41AM, Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Come fall, a new principal will be in charge of the McGlynn Elementary School.

Patricia Buker, a 40-year veteran of the Medfod Public Schools and current McGlynn Elementary School principal, is stepping down at the end of the school year.

“She is deserving of our gratitude and praise for her dedication to the children and families of Medford,” said School Superintendent Roy Belson in a statement.

Buker has served as a teacher, literacy coordinator, assistant principal, and principal throughout her career.

Superintendent Belson has announced a plan for selecting a new principal.

“It is our plan to select a new principal in sufficient time to enable opportunities for a smooth transition and orientation…our screening and selection process require time, and we need to allow for sufficient input by stakeholders prior to a final decision,” said Superintendent Belson.

An Advisory Committee will be created to help select the new principal. The committee will include parents, teachers, staff and administrators who are “representative of the McGlynn Elementary, and the programs and services provided at that school.”

The Advisory Committee will interview semi-finalists by April 30 and the School Committee will conduct interviews during the first week of May.

The position is being advertised through March 26 and candidates to be interviewed will be selected by April 16.

The new principal will likely be selected by May 13.

Buker released the following statement on the school’s website:

To: McGlynn Elementary Families and Citizens of Medford,

Part of me feels as if it was only last year that I walked through the door of the Fulton School and into the first classroom that was truly mine – truly my responsibility. I also found out that at the young age of just 21, I would be responsible for educating 92 four and five year old children who were split into AM and PM Kindergarten sessions. From that first day on, I have loved every minute of my tenure in the Medford Public Schools.

Nevertheless, I will be retiring on June 30thof this year.

It has been my privilege, over the past forty years, to witness and be a part of education in our City. Sometimes shocked, sometimes worried, sometimes amazed, sometimes encouraged, and frequently overjoyed, I have watched and taught and been a part of the lives of over 1,200 children, and if I must make sense of it all — if there must be something I have learned from it – then I have an answer for myself, an answer that will satisfy me as I look back.

In all that time, one thing has been consistent and remains consistent – children respond to love. From the first to the last, from the outgoing to the shy, from the privileged to the less fortunate, children have responded to love, do respond to love, and, I’m certain, will continue to respond to love as long as there are parents and children; as long as there are students and teachers; as long as the human spirit continues to reach out into the world.

In my four decade “stretch” in the elementary school, I have experienced much and learned much. I know I will remember what I have learned, but it will be secondary to the love I have received from the children who shared these premises with me, some of whom have their own children in school even now. That love remembered is what has made my forty years so precious; that love given and received has made them glorious.

It has been superb! Thank you for being a part of it all.

Sincerely,

Patricia Hafner Buker
Principal
John J. McGlynn Elementary