By PATTY YAN
After 16 years as principal of Jericho Middle School, Dr. Gately is leaving to become Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Personnel for the Manhasset school district.
Before he became the principal at Jericho, Dr. Gately was the principal of Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School, the assistant principal of Memorial Junior High School in Valley Stream, and an English teacher in Ridgewood, Queens.
Dr. Gately believes that the job of a principal is very dynamic and extremely challenging. He also believes that he could be a principal for a few more years, but felt it was important to take this opportunity.
“I’m very excited about it. It’s got a whole new set of challenges. I think it’s kind of a natural progression to go from a principal to an assistant superintendent,” Dr. Gately said.
Most of Dr. Gately’s memorable moments at Jericho are the fun activities like cupcake wars, the end of the year dunk tank, the bullying prevention kick-off, and the school field trips to Washington D.C and Quebec.
One of Dr. Gately’s proudest achievements was receiving a Schools to Watch award 5 times, an honor given to schools by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform for meeting its standards of high performance. However, this was also a challenge for him. Dr. Gately said, “It’s a very rigorous self-study process where the staff looks at everything we do to make sure we’re doing a great job with reference to a rubric about middle school best practice, so it’s very, very extensive.”
Another challenge he faced was adapting to standards-based grading, which is a very different way of grading compared to most schools on Long Island and in New York.
Dr. Gately, left, will hand over the reins to Mr. Gleason who will be Jericho Middle School’s next principal.
The middle schoolers and staff will miss Dr. Gately, especially current assistant principal Mr. Gleason. “I’m really going to miss Dr. Gately. He’s been a friend and a mentor to me. I’ve learned a ton, and I have so much respect for the programs and work that he started at the middle school,” said Mr. Gleason.
Dr. Gately will miss the kids and the families here. He said, “People are so kind to me, and encouraging, and supporting. I just feel like everybody is my family, so it’s really hard.”