Home News Education Lawrence School To Get A New Temporary Principal

Lawrence School To Get A New Temporary Principal

2470
Monica Crowley
Monica Crowley

As Lawrence Principal Alysson Hart steps down at the end of this school year, Brookline’s Monica Crowley will step in as the interim principal.

Crowley has served as the principal of the Upper Devotion School for the last four years and served as Lawrence Vice Principal from 2008 to 2014, according to a letter that Superintendent Andrew Bott sent to families and staff.

In February, Hart submitted her resignation effective at the end of the current school year. According to a letter Superintendent Andrew Bott sent to families, Hart is leaving for personal and family reasons.

Hart’s resignation is yet another change for the Lawrence community in just three years. Her departure has presented Bott and school administrators with the challenge of helping the Lawrence community through yet another transition. Ahead of Crowley’s appointment, Bott had deliberated between appointing an interim principal for the next school year and pursuing a full search process later, or to starting the search process now in order to place a permanent principal at Lawrence for the start of the 2018-2019 school year.

“It is critically important to me personally that stability return to the school,” Bott said in an interview with the media last week.

While serving as vice principal at Lawrence, Crowley created the town-wide middle school advisory program, co-chaired the School Council and served as a member of Faculty Planning and Child Study Teams, according to the letter.

“Ms. Crowley’s close ties with Lawrence staff and families and her strong track record of instructional leadership in the district will serve the Lawrence community well,” Bott said in the letter.

In addition to Crowley, Lawrence will also gain Janet Palmer Owens who will work with Hart and the rest of the Lawrence administrative team to help ease the transition process, according to the letter.

Crowley’s appointment comes days after Bott announced that Driscoll interim principal Dr. Sujan “Suzie” Talukdar would assume the permanent principal position at the school. Bott is also expected to announce the permanent principal for the Pierce School in the coming days.

Bott was not immediately available for comment on how this would impact Upper Devotion School.