John Gibbons was Weston Middle School’s principal for 3 years. Phillip Oates has been the assistant principal for 6 years. Together, they have formed a great community at Weston Middle School, and have provided and hired great teachers, and great learning materials. Sadly, this year, Mr. Gibbons has retired as the school principal. However, we still have our amazing Mr. Oates and hope hasn’t been fully lost yet.

About Mr. Gibbons

Ever since he was a senior in high school, Mr. Gibbons knew he was destined to teach. In high school, he had a chance to do independent study. When he was a senior, he started a tutoring program. It had to do with algebra and Spanish, he would tutor freshmen in his high school during their study halls. After high school, he became a camp counselor who worked in the summer. He was also a coach at the same time, and he overall did many, many incredible things with education. He also had an uncle who was also an educator. “He was an excellent teacher, and pretty much my role model,” said Mr. Gibbons. Once he graduated from college, Mr. Gibbons worked in a summer school between college and his first job in California, which he worked as a teacher for two years before moving to Weston and became a teacher at Weston Middle School. During his teaching years, Mr. Gibbons got lots of positive encouragement from many teachers to become a principal from both Weston Middle School and the school he worked at in California. Resulting him into becoming the principal. He started the Gardening Club which still lives on today!

About Mr. Oates

This year is Mr. Oates’ seventh year at Weston Middle School and also his first year being our official principal. He was an assistant principal for six whole years, and before that, he was an interim teacher for one year and a math teacher for 11 years. Two years in Cambridge at a high school, and then nine years at Watertown, Lowell as a seventh grade math teacher. He even used to coach football for ten years! He really values education and loves to make education fun, especially math. His parents were educators like Mr. Gibbons’ for seventy years combined. He went to Tufts university to get his masters degree, and knew that his destiny was to be an educator. While he worked at Watertown, he wanted to be an assistant principal there. Sadly, that position never opened up for him, never giving him the opportunity to stay at Watertown Middle School to be the assistant principal there, leading him to being our new principal at Weston Middle School.

Q&A with Mr. Gibbons

Chloe Wang: What was it like to be the Middle School principal? How long have you been the principal for?

Mr. Gibbons: As the middle school principal, at Weston Middle School, it was a joy. I really loved the job, I loved working in Weston, I loved working with all the kids and all the faculty. I worked there as the principal for 22 years, and then I worked at Weston a total of 32 years because I worked as a teacher prior to those years ago, so being a teacher and a principal in Weston was like the best job anyone could ever ask for.

CW: What kind of teacher were you before being the school principal?

Mr. G:I was an English and Reading teacher, and I was working in grade 6. I was like I was a Ms. Oshman or Ms. Berry, I taught the subjects that they do.

CW: What did you do before becoming a principal/teacher? 

Mr. G: Before I became a teacher, I was in college. I was in college for 4 years at Boston College, and I studied to be a teacher when I was there. I studied elementary education and special education, and I got my degree in those areas. 

CW: How or why did you become a principal/teacher?

Mr. G: Because of all my experience, I knew that I liked teaching as a career. And I had an uncle who was an excellent teacher and he was my role model, and that’s how I became a teacher. Then, when I became a teacher, I got encouragement from some of the leaders that I worked with. They encouraged me to pursue becoming a principal, I took their advice. I took the course work that I needed to take, and I paid attention and was observant along the way, and it gave me motivation to become a principal. And eventually, I ended up loving to work with teachers and improve what they do because if you help teachers get better, then the learning for the students gets better. 

CW: What kind of encouragement did you receive?

Mr. G: I always had really strong leaders when I was a teacher in those schools. When I was a teacher in my first couple years in California, I had Mr. Price and Mr. Bigkiff, and they were assistant principal and principal. They used to talk to me a lot about their jobs, and they encouraged me to potentially go into the direction of becoming a principal. When I came to Weston, I had Dr. Harris. He was a legend at Weston Middle School, and he encouraged me to maybe someday take his job. And guess what? I did! I think having that positive encouragement really gave me some confidence to pursue it and it’s really important to do that. I think it’s also important to give teachers encouragement and to step out of their comfort zones, and to pursue things that are challenging but still something that they should do.

CW: How did you feel after retiring?

Mr. G: Oh, boy. Lost. After I retired, my identity was really attached to me and to teaching, and being in the community, so the summer for me was relaxing, but I still felt a little bit uneasy because I’ve been a principal and a teacher for 37 years combined. So then all of a sudden, it was over. I was a little lost in the summer, I did enjoy time with my family and friends, but I still felt that I wasn’t totally ready to stop being in education.

CW: What part of your job do you miss most?

Mr. G: I miss a lot about the middle school in Weston specifically, mostly the teachers and the kids there. That’s what I really miss the most for sure.

CW: Is there anything else you would like to say to any teachers or students?

Mr. G: Just bring your best selves to school and to work every day. To embrace others, and listen to Mr. Oates and what he says. Everyone is all in good hands with Mr. Oates for sure, so just be your best selves.

Q&A with Mr. Oates

Chloe Wang: What is it like to be the new school principal?

Mr. Oates: I am very lucky to be the principal at Weston Middle School, it’s a place that I’ve given my professional life to for the past six years before this year. I feel at home here, I feel the students are amazing, they work really hard, they are nice kids, I think they like each other overall, and there’s a lot of community here. I think teachers are top notch, they all are very passionate about their subjects, they work really hard, they commit to taking care of kids and putting kids first, which is what I’m all about. The community, parents, kids, and others all value education. I’m really happy to work in a place that values education, both my parents were educators as well, I’m really lucky to be in a place like this.

CW: What part of your job do you love most?

Mr.O: High-fiving kids in the morning off the bus in number one. Generally speaking, I just like walking around and seeing kids smiling at each other, watching them at lunch, and watching the social dynamics that play out, watching them run around, all that stuff with the time where kids are being themselves and having fun.

CW: Do you and Mr. Gibbons still stay in touch after he retired?

Mr. O: We text each other multiple times per week, we hung out in the summer a bit. We text and call each other all the time, we still do fantasy football together, we’re still good buds.

CW: Why did you choose to become assistant principal?

Mr. O: Kind of like Mr. Gibbons, some people notice that you;re doing certain things in a leadership role without even knowing that you do them sometimes, and kind of just taking things on and leading the charge on things. I realized I really wanted to be a school leader, and then I landed here, and it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. 

CW: Are you excited to be the new principal?

Mr. O: Yeah, absolutely! I couldn’t ask for a better job, I think that we have a lot of potential here that we’re gonna reach. We’re a high achieving school, it’s taken really seriously, and I think we’re going in the right direction in a lot of things/

CW: Is there anything else you would like to say to students/teachers? 

Mr. O: Most of my success is through treating people the way you wanna be treated, that is huge. I’m always gonna try my best to treat everyone with respect, I’m always gonna try to listen when someone is talking to me, I always take what you’re saying seriously, and I think if everybody did that a little more often we’d be in a really good spot. Treat people with kindness, everyone has something going on in their lives, so if we treat everybody with that mind, I think everybody would be happier along the way and we’re gonna take care of each other. If we all get together and band together; man, that’s gonna be good.

Wrap-up

Today, our great Mr. Gibbons is not here at Weston Middle School anymore, and some of us haven’t even gotten a chance to meet him yet. “He was a great principal. Never really got mad when we did something and heard the students out.” said an eighth grade student. “I really miss him because he was really kind. Garden club is not the same without him.” said another. 

Even though Mr. Gibbons isn’t at Weston Middle School anymore, this still doesn’t mean that Mr. Oates won’t do an amazing job! Us, Weston Middle Schoolers are very lucky to still have Mr. Oates in our school. “Mr. Oates is a great principal and he’s very inclusive and supportive.” said a seventh grade student. “I feel confident that Mr. Oates will bring great positivity to our school.” said an eighth grader. Current 7th and 8th graders are also very lucky to have been able to spend time with both Mr. Oates and Mr. Gibbons. We will all look forward to Mr. Oates making a great community for us during our time here at Weston Middle School.