Longtime Breed educator takes over top spot

LYNN – Superintendent Nicholas Kostan filled the first of five open principal positions in the district last week, selecting longtime Breed Middle School teacher and vice principal Fred Dupuis as the school’s new principal.Dupuis will replace interim principal Robert Frodema, who took over in February when James Ridley was moved to Lynn Vocational and Technical Institute to spell the embattled Brian Coughlin.When it comes to West Lynn, one would be hard-pressed to find someone more engrained in the community than Dupuis. Born and raised on Murray Street, he has never ventured far from home, working as teacher and later assistant principal at Breed for over 30 years.Dupuis’ career began as a permanent substitute teacher at Pickering Middle School in 1976, but he moved on to Breed the next year where he served as industrial arts and technology education teacher until 2004 when he was promoted to assistant principal.His experience at Breed goes beyond his professional career, as Dupuis attended the school as a student, first when it was an elementary school and later when it shifted to a junior high school.”You could really say that Breed was my first and only place. I was born and raised on Murray Street and I went to Breed Elementary School and Breed Junior High, so I have spent a very large part of my life at a school named Breed,” he said in an interview Monday. “It means a lot to me (to be chosen as the school’s next principal) because I have much of what I have today because of teachers and principals at Breed I came in contact with over the years.”Dupuis said that he is focused on keeping current policies in place for now and working with the faculty and staff to identify areas that may need attention or improvement in the future.Like most schools in the district, MCAS scores and upcoming budget cuts are two of the largest areas of concern, along with safety – something that was magnified last week when gunshots rang out a short distance away from the school during a Friday afternoon gang incident.”The biggest thing to me is to just provide the educational environment for all students to succeed, and to do everything in my power in this day and age to make sure everybody is safe,” he said. “I am going to continue with the policies that are in place for now and look to see what is working. Next year we will sit down and look at things like MCAS scores, etc? and see what changes are going to be made.”One of the biggest challenges right now is that we don’t know what is happening with the budget cuts next year. That is something that is really going to change the landscape of things around here.”Breed is one of five schools, joining the Hood, Sisson, Cobbett and Drewicz elementary schools, in need of new principals next year. While Ridley was re-appointed to LVTI, Hood’s Paula Akiba, Sisson’s John Morris, Cobbett’s Linda Lord and Drewicz’ James Cole have all filed retirement papers in 2008.Kostan has put together a screening committee to identify top candidates from a list of over 20 applicants to fill three of those positions in the coming weeks.Washington Community School Principal Joseph Cole will transfer to the fourth open position when that school closes at the end of the school year due to budget cuts.Stanley Serwacki of the Fallon Community School, which is also closing, has also filed retirement papers and will not need to relocate to a new position.Kostan interviewed both Dupuis and Frodema for the Breed job earlier this month, and said both candidates were so qualified that it made his decision extremely difficult.”Both men were very strong candidates and they have both been at Breed for a very long time,” Kostan said. “I just felt that in the long run Fred Dupuis would be the best person to lead the school at this time. Both are tremendous educators that have a very strong affection for that school, and that is what really made this a tough choice.”For Dupuis, the decision to apply for the job was a no-brainer, an