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North Shore educator embodies pride
File photo
Tom Meehan is all smiles with returning students on the first day of school last year.
Elementary school principal does what’s best for kids and his community By elana glowatz
Tom Meehan is the kind of principal who would give a child the clothes off his back — literally. When he saw an Edna Louise Spear Elementary School student was not wearing a jacket, the Port Jefferson principal took off the one he had on and gave it to the boy to wear home. “He understands that it’s about the kids — that they’re the priority,” school board President Kathleen Brennan said, adding that Meehan goes “above the call of duty to make sure kids get what they need.” For his dedication to Port Jefferson’s kids and the greater community, Tom Meehan is the Village Times Herald’s Person of the Year. Meehan was hired for the 2011-12 school year, originally
on an interim basis. District officials expected to hire a permanent elementary principal, but soon found the best choice was right under their noses. Tony Butera, a longtime kindergarten teacher at Edna Louise Spear, has worked under a bunch of principals in his time there, but said Meehan has “a nice sense of what Port Jeff is supposed to be about.” “He just sees it as, these are his kids,” Butera said. Early on in Meehan’s time in Port Jefferson, there was an issue with one of the bus routes and it was running late. Brennan said the principal “got on the bus, rode the bus around the route and reassured the parents at every stop about why they were late and what happened.” That leadership instinct is not something that can be taught, Brennan said.
“Tom has … what I call ‘horse sense’ about what school administration is about.” One initiative Meehan started in the elementary school is a safety patrol for the fifth-graders to teach them responsibility. Among their activities, they help with dismissal, making sure younger kids get onto the school buses. School board member Ellen Boehm, a former district employee, said it gives the kids a sense that “what they did was important.” And for the less outgoing kids, she added, “He built them up during their time as a safety leader.” Meehan, a longtime volunteer for the Port Jefferson Fire Department, was also responsible for starting the tradition of elementary school kids singing at the fire department’s annual 9/11 remembrance ceremony.
Brennan said the experience is significant for the kids who attend, and they’ve been able to see Meehan in uniform a few times. It’s “important to see adults have other roles in the community,” she said. Christian Neubert has worked alongside Meehan both in the school district, where he is a music teacher, and as a volunteer for the Port Jefferson Fire Department. He said the 9/11 ceremony is not the only way Meehan bridges the school and the department — he also gets firefighters involved in the school’s evacuation drills, and some high school kids now in the junior firefighter program had Meehan as a principal and look up to him at the firehouse. Neubert, a lieutenant, noted Meehan is still qualified to fight fires inside buildings, despite MEEHAN continued on page A28