The Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District announces that Anne Marie Osheyack has been named assistant principal of teaching and learning at Conant Middle High School for the 2023-2024 school year.
Osheyack will take over for Hether Shulman, who is retiring at the end of the 2022-2023 school year. Conant High School and Jaffrey-Rindge Middle School are merging to become Conant Middle High School.
“Anne Marie has a special ability to meet learners where they are and lead them to deeper thinking,” stated Superintendent Reuben Duncan. “This, coupled with her strong knowledge and understanding of our district’s instruction and learning model, will enable her to be successful with supporting our learners, our staff and the community.”
Osheyack is an English teacher at Conant High School, a role she has had since 2017. She has more than a decade of experience teaching English at the high school level. She has a bachelor’s degree in English and public policy from Syracuse University and a master’s in education from Springfield College.
“Everyone is capable of doing hard things when they have the right support, both academic and social/emotional, to get there,” stated Osheyack. “I have held this belief throughout my 17 years of teaching, and my work with learners has only served to reinforce this belief. The most beautiful and powerful tool that teachers have is to see the greatness in their learners, even when they don’t see it in themselves. Administrators set the tone for the building, and I saw an opportunity to take my passion, joy and curiosity about learning and teaching and infuse it into the greater school community.”
Osheyack, a self described “curriculum geek,” was inspired to apply for the position as a way to expand upon the curriculum work that she was already assisting with as a team leader in the high school. She has worked with others in the district on curriculum work as a team leader, and has also spent time in the past training teachers in developing curriculum.
“I get energized talking about the craft of teaching with others, and I find that the most reinvigorating professional development that I’ve participated in are the ones where I’ve gotten to learn and talk with other teachers about their craft and bring new things back to my own practice,” stated Osheyack. “I think teachers learn best from each other, and we have a lot of collective strengths across the building. I’d love to empower teachers to share those strengths and get us into each other’s classrooms so that we build on this culture of shared learning and teaching.”
Osheyack’s goals as an assistant principal include building on a peer observation pilot to “get more teachers teaching teachers,” and to spend time listening and watching at different levels.
“My goal is to spend a lot of time watching and listening — to the teachers, to my administrative team, and to learners and families,” she stated “I’m sure I’ll have questions, so I’m thankful that I have a great team of administrators to work with to help me prioritize and acclimate to the new position. I’d like to be out of my office a lot early on in hallways, classrooms and at events getting to know learners and families, the teachers not in my immediate orbit, and connecting on a human level first.”
Osheyack was a member of the district’s inaugural Leadership Academy, a partnership with Keene State College that focuses on developing educational leadership throughout the district. Osheyack stated she learned many great lessons from the academy that she will carry with her to the assistant principal role, including the importance of building and maintaining relationships.
“The academy also spent a great deal of time teaching us about change and how that process works and what leaders can do to facilitate it,” she stated. “Our building is going through some changes currently as we move to become one school, create a shared vision of the graduate through our NEASC work and adapt to proficiency based grading via OTUS. So much of change is about listening to people, and valuing where they’re at in the process. Our professors created spaces where we could be open and honest, where we laughed and valued each other, and gave us room to learn from each other from K to 12.”