Many dads with kids in different schools made multiple stops Tuesday. The 309 dads in attendance outpaced the approximately 200 in 2013, 30 in 2012 and 15 in 2011, the inaugural year.
After signing in at MAS, parents like Dan and Laura Kearon assembled in the auditorium (older kids and their parents went to the gym). There, students recited the Pledge of Allegiance and then the school pledge.
“Very positive attitude all the time, and it kind of permeates throughout the school,” Dan Kearon said. “You see it in every classroom. So, we’re definitely very happy with the school here.”
To get started, Janowitz raised his pointer finger, which at MAS is a call for silence that students follow almost immediately. The jovial Janowitz assured parents the gesture doesn’t work so well with his own kids at home.
“It only works here,” he said.
He encouraged dads to get more involved in the PTA but didn’t go as far as Principal Eileen McGuire, who mused that every new male to join would be treated by Janowitz to a beer at Dunne’s. McGuire’s “right-hand man” may not carry that out, but he does leave the occasional note of encouragement in his third-grade child’s backpack or lunchbox to let him know he is thinking about him.
“He knows dad’s gotta work,” he said. “I can’t be in the school with him, like his mom is able to. But I want him to know it’s as important for me to think about being there and being with him. Makes the biggest difference in the world.”
Dan and Laura Kearon said they like that idea for their first-grade son and kindergartner daughter.
“She’s very social,” Dan said of his daughter, Paige. “Every day when my son went to kindergarten (last year), she would say she was jealous. So she was looking forward to coming here.”
Brett Langley’s son, Jonathan, 9, is also enjoying his first few weeks of school, along with his younger sisters, Kate, 7, and Emily, 5.
Like Langley, Bill Brady likes being part of his children’s education equation.
“It’s not only a great way to just meet the staff but also for our son to see us come to school and be a part of their day,” said Bill Brady, whose son, Joseph, 10, is in fifth grade at MAS.
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