Team McAuliffe School Site Council

I have been serving as the Principal of the McAuliffe School for 3 years. Before that I was the McAuliffe School Assistant Principal for a year, a high school Assistant Principal for 4 years, an administrator at George Mason University, and a high school History Teacher. The School Site Council is an important part of Team McAuliffe helping to ensure that a variety of voices and perspectives are considered when making important decisions about our kids' educations.

I am currently a kindergarten teacher and have been a member of the McAuliffe school family for 10 years. I joined the school site council to be a voice for the teachers and students of the school and be more involved in our school community.

I am a 1-to-1 Paraprofessional at the McAuliffe School. Previously, I was a substitute teacher here at the school and have really enjoyed my time in the school system. I went to this school as a child and went through Lowell Public Schools through grade 12. This was an opportunity for me to become more involved not only in my school, but in the community. I hope to bring a new perspective to the committee while representing the Paraprofessionals at the school. My mother was also very involved in the school I attended and whenever I get the chance, I follow in her footsteps.

This January marked my twenty second year working as a speech language pathologist at the McAuliffe School. Throughout these years, I have had the extreme good fortune to work with many wonderful educators, administrators, families and students. I love teaching in Lowell and when my husband and I were planning to move to NH a few years back, my only stipulation was that we still had to live within commuting distance of the McAuliffe.

I’m excited about serving on the McAuliffe School’s Site Council and hope that the district’s newly adopted funding model will serve as a mechanism through which all of our schools will be able to secure the resources that they need to fully prepare all of our students for the future. I feel that this work is particularly important given the millions of dollars in State funding that will be coming to our schools over the next few years.

My graduate work at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute of Health Professions focused on written as well as spoken language. This, paired with my work in special education and my experience teaching adult emergent readers at Lowell Adult Education, has given me a strong interest in helping the district to identify ways to bring evidence-based literacy instruction to all of our students. It is because of this that I have been serving on the Special Education Reading Committee and the district’s Dyslexia Screening Committee. My priority for our students is for them to have access to the level and type of instruction that they need to become skilled readers, writers and communicators.

When I’m not busy at school, I can be found digging in the dirt with my husband Gene at our family farm, tending log cultivated shiitake mushrooms in the woods or sitting by the wood-stove knitting.

My name is Kristin Wade. I am a fourth grade teacher, as well as a parent here at the McAuliffe. I believe it’s very important to have a “voice” when things matter. To me, the McAuliffe matters for a number of reasons! Because I know how lucky we are to have such a great school community, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work together with parents and community members in this capacity, to be able to be the voice for our kids.

My name is Kerrie D’Entremont. I am the Executive Director for the Greater Lowell Health Alliance, a coalition that brings together front-line organizations to identify and address our community’s greatest unmet health needs. I hope to bring my experience, working in the community, to the Site Council and provide a bridge to resources needed.

My son Evan is in 3rd grade at the McAuliffe. My older son Ian, now in the sixth grade at the Robinson, also attended the McAuliffe. I love everything about our experience at the McAuliffe and wanted to give back. I hope that I can make a positive impact on our children’s school and education. Thank you for this opportunity!

My name is Jessica Dearborn and I have two 4th grade students at the McAuliffe. I chose to be a part of the School Site Council because I wanted to be more involved with the city and community, and be a part of a group of people who have options and opportunities to be involved with decisions that impact our students' education. I’ve never gone out of my comfort zone and figured it would be worth a try.

Hi, my name is Jessica Miller and my son is in the second grade at the McAuliffe Elementary School. I’m currently on the PTO committee and wanted to be involved with the site council in order to get more information on school needs to help shape our programs.

Hello my name is Tara Oslan and this is my first full day year here at the McAuliffe School. My daughter is in kindergarten. I wanted to be part of the school and more involved so I reached out to Mr Anderson to become a part of the School Site Council because this is a great way to know exactly what is going on with our children's education program. I hope that with my dedication, I can help make a positive learning experience for our kids and look forward to the following years here.

My name is Maria Perez. My connection to the McAuliffe School is my child, who attends Kindergarten at the school . I joined the School Site Council to provide a voice for parents who have children at the McAuliffe School and also parents in the community on issues that are important to them . Lastly I joined to support the school to develop a strong home/school partnership.

Alison Quandt Westgate joined UMass Lowell in the fall of 2017 overseeing academics and student services. She has a passion for working with student-athletes to help them achieve their full potential as students, athletes and citizens of the greater community. Known across the department as ‘Q,’ she is charged with the academic success of student-athletes across all 16 sports as well as building the foundation for the burgeoning Student-Athlete Development curriculum that includes the River Hawk Leadership Academy, Career Preparation, Community Service and Personal Development programming and services.

I joined the McAuliffe's School Site Council because I recognize the important role that the University plays in the fabric of the community and want to provide support for the youth at the McAuliffe to pursue higher education.