Sewell-Anderson of principal concern

LYNN – Sewell-Anderson School?s 300 students won?t start classes until Sept. 9, but new Principal Mary Panagopoulos? academic year started on July 1 when she trekked along Sewell-Anderson?s hallways, familiarizing herself with classrooms and assessing a summer?s worth of cleaning.?It gave me a good chance to see every nook and cranny,” Panagopoulos said.The Lynn resident?s selection in June by School Superintendent Catherine Latham as the school?s new principal caps off a 31-year teaching career that saw Panagopoulos specialize in special education. Her experience working in schools, including Connery, Drewicz, Harrington and Tracy – which she attended as a child – shaped a teaching philosophy Panagopoulos plans to translate into her Sewell-Anderson mission statement.?Every child can learn: It?s up to us as educators to find the right tool,” she said.Veteran Sewell-Anderson teacher Julie O?Shea said Panagopoulos is the right educator to oversee the Pine Hill School.?She?s very approachable,” O?Shea said.Special education teacher Dina Lemmi said Panagopoulos plans to take a team approach to Sewell-Anderson?s operation that will help its two dozen educators, administrators and custodians and Pine Hill residents build on the school?s reputation as a place for education and community activities.?We love her already,” Lemmi said.Panagopoulos? love for education comes, in part, from her late mother, Stella, who taught kindergarten at Sewell-Anderson. Pictures on Panagopoulos? desk show her mother in a classroom reading to children.Plenty of local veteran educators remembered Stella Panagopoulos when they heard about her daughter?s promotion.?They offered me congratulations and then added, ?Your mother would be proud,?” Panagopoulos recalled.She said her experience as a Tracy School student babysitting a deaf child living on her street accelerated her interest in education.?I?ve always reached out to the underdog,” she said.Panagopoulos taught autistic and behaviorally challenged students during her teaching career and, as a student and workout regular at East Coast Karate, she helped develop a karate program for autistic children.Not all of her goals for her first school year at Sewell-Anderson are focused on education: She plans to enlist a landscaper?s help to revive the Japanese red maple tree dedicated in 1996 in the memory of former student Christopher Spagnoli.She also plans to delve into the history of the two World War I veterans who are remembered with a place of honor in the school?s front hall. Ernest Anderson and Loren Sewell were killed a month apart in 1918.