Staff Writer
PEPPERELL — Peter Fitzpatrick School’s loss is Tewksbury’s North Street School’s gain as Assistant Principal Angela Kimble prepares to leave the North Middlesex Regional School District on Dec. 23.
She will become the Tewksbury school’s principal, a job she’s been working toward for at least eight years at North Middlesex — two as assistant principal at Hawthorne Brook Middle School in Townsend followed by the past six in Pepperell.
“My time at Peter Fitzpatrick has definitely prepared me well for my new role and I will miss the staff, children and parents,” she said, “but the time has come to move on to a principalship.”
A soccer mom of two school-age children, ages 9 and 11, she said the amount of parental involvement in Pepperell is unique and outstanding compared to other towns and her time spent here is unforgettable.
Kimble’s experience ranges from pre-K through eighth grade. Originally from Los Angeles, she taught grades three through six from 1992-2001 in both Los Alamos, N.M., where she was nominated for State Teacher of the Year, and Los Angeles.
As a first-year teacher, she taught accelerated students, children of physicists working in Los Alamos before moving to Los Angeles, where she taught less-advantaged inner-city students of all ethnicities at L.A. Unified.
Immediately prior to coming to the North Middlesex school district, she taught third grade elementary students and sixth-grade math in Chelmsford.
Kimble completed the Principal Internship Program during her master’s degree studies in educational administration at the University of Lowell. She has bachelor’s degrees in history, English and elementary education.
“I have two school-age children so I understand that age group,” Kimble said when she first arrived. “One of our goals is to get parents involved as much as possible in the classroom. We’re fortunate to have a large volunteer group.”
Kimble said last week that her initial assessment of Peter Fitzpatrick School and the community has only heightened over the past six years.
When she arrived, she had said she was “very impressed” with the hard work and dedication at the school. “The staff is wonderful, supportive,” she said. “It creates a culture that says, ‘We are all here.’ We have to be a community of learners to make a difference at this level.”
Working with Peter Fitzpatrick’s 580 pre-K through second-graders, Kimble’s latest role was a focus on the use of data to develop best practices that lead to student achievement.
She was involved with curriculum programming and provided supervision and evaluation support for teachers. She scheduled students, chaired meetings regarding special needs students, led the school’s crisis team and worked with families going through transition.
“I know it’s a big step for her. We think she’s ready. We’ll miss her but it’s something she’s been looking forward to,” said Dr. Pauline Cormier, Peter Fitzpatrick principal.
“When the (Tewksbury) superintendent and teachers came here, a lot of what we had is what they’re looking for in their school,” Cormier said.
