Assistant Supt. Alan Dewey stepping down after 8 productive years

Alan B. Dewey, Canton Public Schools’ head of student services for the past eight years, began his career as a special education teacher in Burlington and later Hanover, where he worked with autistic students – in the mornings at an elementary school and at the high school in the afternoon.

Alan Dewey

“I was young and in my twenties,” he said with a laugh. “But I would often go home and take a nap. The energy level was that intensive. But I loved working with the kids.”

Dewey will retire from the Canton schools on August 31, following nearly 40 years of devoting passion and energy to special needs students and the teachers and staff who work with them.

The son of an airman, Dewey was born at the Tokyo Army Hospital and grew up on Air Force bases in Japan, Maine, Alabama, Kansas, and California before eventually arriving in Massachusetts. He met and married his wife, who is Japanese, while his father was stationed in Japan.

He later earned degrees from Boston University and the former Boston State College, now UMass-Boston, and in 1985 he became the director of special education in Rockland. Seventeen years later, former Canton superintendent Irene Sherry Kaplan appointed Dewey the director of student services in Canton. He was responsible for several departments, including health, guidance, English language learners, and special education.

Dewey said Canton’s student services department was in “disarray” when he came aboard in 2002.

“There had been ten special [education] directors in ten years,” he explained. “The records were in 40 cardboard boxes. Some teachers were writing IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) by hand and other on computers. [Canton] had been cited 55 out of 58 times for non-compliance.”

Over the next four years, Dewey straightened out the special education department, ordering filing cabinets, establishing record keeping procedures, and providing additional training for teachers and staff members. In 2006, largely in recognition of his efforts, he was promoted to assistant superintendent.

He has also worked over the last several years to create in-district programs for students with autism, beginning with preschoolers and continuing on through the middle school. Programs will soon be available for students at Canton High School, meaning that high school students on the autism spectrum will be able to be educated in their hometown. Not only does that provide a cost savings for the town, but it also allows Canton to offer placements to students from other communities, which will generate additional revenues for the schools.

Dewey is pleased with the financial boost that the program provides and is even prouder that local students will receive the services they need from local schools. “That’s really the most important thing,” he said.

His plans for retirement are threefold: He and his wife, Catherine, who is a supervisor at the Massachusetts Hospital School, have three children, Alan Jr., 36, Jared, 34, and Alyssa, 21. Dewey plans to spend more time with his family, especially Jared’s 18-month-old daughter, Annabelle, who is his only grandchild.

He hopes to find a part-time job, perhaps at the college level. And he wants to work as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. “I’m good with my hands,” he said. “I can build things. It’s important to pay it forward.”

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=3275

Posted by Mary Ann Price on Jul 1 2010. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.