Blair permanent MVVS principal

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Staff Photo by Grant Morris Principal Sue Blair checks on first grader Taryn Quinlan when she saw her walking down the hall with an ice pack pressed against her head.

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Staff Photo by Grant Morris Sue Blair, who was formally the Interim Principal of the Mont Vernon Village School, welcomes students to an assembly on Thursday afternoon. Blair has been named the school's permanent principal.

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Staff Photo by Grant Morris Principal Sue Blair checks on first grader Taryn Quinlan when she saw her walking down the hall with an ice pack pressed against her head.

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MONT VERNON – A veteran educator who came to the Village School last July as interim principal has been named to the post on a permanent basis.

Former pre-school and special education teacher Sue Blair, who was assistant principal at Amherst’s Clark School prior to July, was confirmed by Mont Vernon School board members at a recent meeting.

SAU 39 Superintendent Mary Jennings named Blair to the interim post upon the resignation of Gail Westergren, who had fallen ill just halfway through her first year as principal. Westergren died in November at age 52.

Having recently passed the 30-year milestone in her educational career, Blair, who lives in Amherst, said she’s very pleased to be named to the post on a permanent basis.

“I love change,” she said last week. “I love implementing new things, new ideas; I really appreciate being part of such a phenomenal change in the field of education over my career.”

A native of Melrose, Mass., Blair graduated from Salem, Mass., State College, got her masters in education at Plymouth State College, now Plymouth State University, and after marrying, came to New Hampshire looking to become a kindergarten teacher.

But those opportunities were few and far between in late 1970s New Hampshire, when only a handful of school districts offered public kindergarten. So Blair turned her attention to the small, blue-collar city of Rochester, where she’d spend the next eight years designing and implementing a new kindergarten program.

“That was a very rewarding experience for us, to watch our program come from nothing and grow into regular, full-time kindergarten,” Blair said. She also taught pre-school and special education while in Rochester.

Blair recalls embarking on her career in education at a time “when the standard was to teach to the norm,” she said, with slower learners and children who would today be special education students given little, if any, extra attention.

“That’s changed a great deal over the years,” Blair said. “I love the fact that we (educators) can make such a difference in children’s lives.”

In the mid-1980s, Blair went to the Alton Central School, becoming “a sort of jack of all trades,” she says, teaching kindergarten, readiness and first and second grades during her 19 years there.

After a short stint as principal of Russell Elementary School, in the Baker Valley town of Rumney, Blair was named Clark’s assistant principal for the 2008-09 year before Jennings named her to succeed Westergren in Mont Vernon.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 31, or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.