Two longtime elementary principals moving on

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on November 09, 2007

Two longtime Amherst elementary school principals are leaving their posts this year.

Fort River Elementary School Principal Russ Vernon-Jones and Crocker Farm Elementary School Principal Paul Wiley, who both started their jobs in 1990, wrap up their tenures in June.

Amherst regional schools Superintendent Jere Hochman said search committees would seek their successors in the coming months at about the same time a committee will be seeking applicants for a new Amherst Regional Middle School principal.

Vernon-Jones said he isn't retiring but moving onto another career, likely focusing on anti-racism education. "It's a passion of mine and it really is what pulls me to move onto something new," he said.

Vernon-Jones has been an elementary school principal for 27 years, with 18 of those at Fort River, three in Pelham and six in Shelburne Falls. Before that he was a classroom teacher for eight years.

The highlight of his years at Fort River, Vernon-Jones said, was "the opportunity to be with young people every day and to work with a staff who are truly committed to loving, teaching and social justice."

The main challenge, he said, is meeting the diverse needs of students and to keep teaching the "whole child" at a time when public concern about test scores is predominant.

Vernon-Jones is married to Lydia Vernon-Jones, a social worker in Springfield, and the couple has two grown children.

"Russ is a leader in our elementary schools and our community on topics of mathematics curriculum, curriculum development, topics of race and social justice and many others," Hochman said in an email. "He is the 'principal teacher' of his school, well aware of the progress of all children and guiding the efforts of the adults and the community."

Wiley said he likes to tell people he isn't retiring from something, but to something. He plans to work as an organizational consultant with a local corporation, Romney Associates Inc., after he leaves Crocker Farm. Patricia Romney, after whom the company is named, is his wife. The Wileys have four grown children.

Wiley came to Amherst after teaching in the public schools in West Haven and New Haven, Conn., to teach at Amherst Regional Middle School for a year. He was later a guidance counselor at Mark's Meadow Elementary School, Pelham Elementary School and Crocker Farm before becoming the principal there.

One of the highlights of his years at Crocker Farm was the completion of renovations in 2002, he said.

"It was a two-year-plus project, very challenging but when we got our school to the place where we had the kind of room that we needed, and we had the facility that the teachers and the students really deserved, it was quite an accomplishment."

Wiley said an ongoing challenge for schools in general and for Crocker Farm in particular will be to continue to provide an "equable and sufficient education for all of our children in our schools."

Hochman said that Wiley is a leader "best characterized by the phrase presence.' He acquires the unique balance of taking the lead when necessary and allowing others to learn, grow and assume the lead when appropriate," Hochman said.

"Most significantly, Paul reminds of us of what school is all about - when a child asks proudly 'Can I read to you?' the next picture you see is that of a child, beaming, reading to his principal who is beaming right back at him."