In a dark suit with white combed-over hair, a smiling man enters the classroom, greets the journalism students, and pulls a chair to the center of the room, plopping himself down to speak face to face with over 20 students. For a man who has spent 14 years in education as a teacher, he radiated comfort. It had not always been this way for Scituate’s new superintendent of public schools, Mr. McCarthy.
As a senior in high school, Scituate Public Schools’ new superintendent saw how the job consumes you, watching his father work in the very position he holds today. Only after a career test as a freshman in college did McCarthy switch from business to education and teaching. It was not until a student teaching experience as a senior in college that “I knew that’s what I wanted to be. It sealed the deal for me,” said McCarthy.
A history teacher and a softball coach for fourteen years in the Old Rochester District, McCarthy came into administration through another turn of events, this time in Rochester. He stepped into the office after a principal had a heart attack and has not left administration since. McCarthy was principal at a private Catholic school in Burlington, Vermont, at Duxbury High School, and later in Hopkinton.
Upon becoming a superintendent, McCarthy said, “I had to really get up to speed on elementary schools. It was a steep learning curve for me.” Primarily a high school person beforehand, McCarthy joins Scituate leaders now with a strong appreciation for educational foundations and working with the entire system, up through high school. He has made a challenge for himself: to experience first-hand the whole Scituate experience. Mr. McCarthy said, “I will be in every classroom by June. I will watch 274 teachers teach. Every Friday morning I cut out a three-hour block of time. It’s sacred time—no one touches that time.”
“I will see every athletic team play. It might get difficult with the golf team. I’ll get a golf cart and go around. I’ll see every play or musical performance,” he said, laughing.
McCarthy appreciates Scituate community’s support for youth and education and hopes to continue that trend in his transition here. He has already started with his personal challenge. Scituate impressed McCarthy with its $2.2 million tax override—a difficult feat in supporting education. He also said, “I like working in communities near the water. Coastal areas have a strong sense of community.”
McCarthy relied heavily on the strong leadership of principals and administrators as well in his transition to Scituate. He knew that Scituate’s public school teachers would have a passion for helping all students.
Along with everything positive McCarthy recognizes about Scituate now, he still holds high expectations for the future. He requires that the whole school system be the best that it can be. On the long term, he hopes to leave behind a new building for Scituate students. Finally, and most interestingly, McCarthy aims to bring a 21st century learning environment and functionality to Scituate Public Schools. He said that his past experiences could help bring about virtual online courses, to prepare for the college experience. He adds that during a senior project during the last few weeks of school, students could research careers and pathways for a portfolio to graduate. An untraditional necessity, like laptops or iPads, much like McCarthy worked with in Hopkinton, would really bring Scituate to a new level.
McCarthy enters Scituate as a traditional family man, with a wife and two grown kids, but also with a refreshing vigor to connect and work with everyone and everything that makes the unique Scituate public school community what it is.