By ARCHIE MOUNTAIN
NEWPORT — When Dan Cherry heads back to school in August he’ll be driving south down Route 10 instead of heading west to Claremont.
There will be no more traffic and Washington Street traffic lights with which to deal. There is one light in downtown Newport but he can even bypass that by taking a side street or two.
And when he arrives in Marlow, 17 miles away, his day will start.
There, the teaching principal will be greeted by a new group of students—all 38 of them—in pre-kindergarten through Grade 6 at John D. Perkins Academy, Marlow’s Elementary School.
Marlow, a small Cheshire County community of 700 residents, wants to keep its own elementary school operating with a staff of about 10.
“It’s like going from automatic shift to standard,” Cherry said, four hours after arriving back home in Newport at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. The Cherry’s spent a few days in Chicago where their daughter Danielle will be entering DePaul University in the fall.
Now 54, Dan has spent most of his adult life in the education community, serving as principal at Maple Avenue School in Claremont since 2012, a six-year stint.
Cherry already has a good idea of what it will be like leading a school of 38 students compared to a student body of 300 at Maple Avenue.
“It’s really difficult top be innovated in a large school setting. There are so many moving parts,” he said.
“When this opportunity came up in Marlow it hit me pretty hard. It was a chance to be able to go somewhere and try something new or innovated. I believe you will see the impact right away.”
Cherry’s wife, Sandra, owns and operates Universal Physical Therapy. In addition to Danielle who graduated this spring from Bishop Brady High School in Concord and will be majoring in film production and directing, they are parents of a son, Aaron, who lives in Florida.
Aaron earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Sports Management from the University of Tampa. He is currently working toward his Master’s Degree through Southern New Hampshire University. He is employed by the Manatee County Recreation Department.
Dan has resided in Newport since 1985. He graduated from Fredonia, N.Y., High School in 1982 and SUNY in 1985. In Newport he taught in Grades 4, 5 and 6 at Towle. He went from Newport to Lebanon as Director of Technology followed by a stint with the New Hampshire Department of Education working in the Office of Educational Technology in Concord.
While there he wrote the Gates Foundation Grant for the State of New Hampshire, a $1.2 million piece of work.
He then did consulting work throughout the country in areas of school leadership, organizational change and technology. He settled in as Director of Technology for the Concord School District.
Dan came full circle, returning to Towle where he taught fifth grade and became library media specialist.
Cherry thanked the Claremont School District that gave him his first administrative job. “We accomplished a lot of things there with great support from the PTO.”
And then Cherry reflected one more time on his move.
“Moving from a school with more than 300 kids and 80 staff to 38 kids and under 10 staff is an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
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