Veterans Principal has emotional final day

SAUGUS – After five years at the helm of the Veterans Memorial Elementary School, Principal Uri Harel will be leaving to take a position as the Coordinator of Elementary Curriculum for Somerville schools.For Harel, who officially left the school Thursday, his final day was an emotional one.?I?ll miss it a lot,” said Harel. “Today was a real tearful day. The staff and I have been working so closely all these years and I?m going to miss the kids.”?A lot has happened in the last five years,” added Harel. “A lot of it has been community building and we changed a lot of the curriculum. I think we really improved intervention for the kids. If a kid was struggling with reading or math we caught it early.”Harel was also the Title 1 director for Saugus Schools. Title 1 funding aims to close the gap between low-income students and the rest of the student body.Harel?s new position as Curriculum Coordinator will take him away from the day-to-day interactions with students and teachers that he has gotten used to over the years but, he said, he?ll be able to contribute much more to a wider group of students.?I got to see students and teachers a lot,” said Harel. “This job is going to be a little less of that. Working at a district level I?ll have more of an impact on the students, but in the background.”School Committee member Arthur Grabowski said the school was notified of his potential departure last Monday, when it was announced that Harel had made the short list for the job. Last Friday Harel was officially offered the new position.?He did a good job,” said Grabowski. “He really jumped into it and was very immersed in it. He really took it to heart. It?s unfortunate that someone here for five years is leaving, but that?s life. A door opened for him to pursue his goals and a door opened for us to hire someone with new passion and new blood.”Somerville Assistant Superintendent Vincent McKay said Harel?s five years as the head of the Veterans School is what made him standout after a “nation-wide search.”?He?s an experienced person who is stepping into a district-level leadership position and we?re very excited to have him as part of our team,” said McKay. “Frankly one of the qualities we look for is experience and success and he definitely had these qualities.”Grabowski regretted that school couldn?t do more to keep Harel, but he said budget constraints made it hard.?We couldn?t do more to keep him because the position he was offered we don?t have,” said Grabowski. “We don?t have the budget for a curriculum director.”A search committee will now be formed to find Harel?s replacement.In the meantime, School Committee Chair Wendy Reed said Assistant Principal Kelly Moss may take over in the interim.While Saugus will be losing a key component to its school system, Reed said Somerville will be lucky to have someone like Harel join the fray.?His strong knowledge in assessment and curriculum is going to be an asset to any community,” said Reed. “I?m sure he?ll make the transition just fine. We certainly will miss him and I wish him well. I know this is an area that he had a lot of passion for.”With both his last day in Saugus and first day in Somerville taking place on Thursday, transitioning to a district the size of Somerville, with 10 different schools, won?t be easy. But Harel said he plans to take the same approach that he did in his five years at the Veterans School.?I have to do exactly what I did in Saugus,” said Harel. “I have to talk to everyone, teachers, principals, administrators and figure out where my place is and where to start.”