Welcome back: Hollis native, resident promoted to assistant principal at HUES

Friday, August 20, 2010

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HOLLIS – Amy Packard Bottomley is the new assistant principal/special education coordinator for the Hollis Upper Elementary School. She’s also an alumna.

“I never thought I’d come home to work in the school system,” said Bottomley, a graduate of Hollis/Brookline Middle School, which was formerly in the HUES building.

Bottomley, who is married to B.J. Bottomley, grew up here, and after graduating from Hollis/Brookline Middle School in 1988, enrolled at the Tilton School.

She graduated from Tilton in 1992 and from Bethany College in 1996.

She and her husband, the parents of Carson, 8, a third-grader at Hollis Primary School, and Turner, 2, operate Runner’s Alley on Coliseum Avenue in Nashua. Both are also active in the Gate City Striders, a statewide running group.

When Bottomley moved into her new office last month, she was returning to a building that she remembered as having moveable partitions rather than walls, and the unlikely moniker, “bomb shelter,” based on its hilltop location and open-concept design.

Last week, she was settled in her office, next door to the one occupied by principal Candice Fowler.

“I’ve been organizing the special education files and planning a teacher’s workshop,” she said. “It’s been busy, and I haven’t stopped.”

Bottomley’s professional career began 15 years ago at Hollis/Brookline High School, following her graduation from college as an education major with an English concentration.

“My work ethic spoke for itself,” she said, describing how she approached each opportunity that came up at the high school.

Bottomley began as a substitute teacher and a year later was hired full time to fill a secretary’s post in the front office.

She said she demonstrated a talent for relating to special education students that wasn’t lost on school administrators.

“They encouraged me. They saw my connection with special education students, and I got a special education certificate at Rivier,” she said.

While she was earning her certificate, Bottomley worked for a year as a paraprofessional at the high school before getting a job as a special education teacher.

By 2006, she had been appointed department chair for the high school’s special education department, where she handled a caseload of between 10 and 12 students and helped coordinate parent meetings as a local educational agent.

“I had over 100 meetings in a year,” she said, describing responsibilities that included overseeing a support staff of 24, and more than 35 people in her department.

Her youngest child was 8 months old, and she and her husband were just starting their business when she enrolled in the master’s program in school administration at New England College.

She completed the program this year, earning a master’s degree and principal and special education administration certifications.

At Hollis Upper Elementary School, Bottomley will divide her time between two roles that she views as complementary.

“Good teaching is good teaching,” she said, speaking as both the assistant principal and the special ed coordinator. “Strategies added for learning disabilities benefit the regular education kids, as well.”

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.