Over the past several weeks, there has been ample discussion about the retirement of our principal at Hingham High School, Dr. Girouard McCann. Although most conversations speculated about the controversy surrounding our principal’s retirement, the editors at The Harborlight would like to focus on Dr. Girouard McCann’s supportive leadership here for the past 17 years. We met with many students who shared their thoughts on her retirement and the personal experiences they shared with her.

Many students were surprised to hear that Dr. Girouard McCann was retiring; the announcement was unexpected, and many people were unsure of the reasons behind the retirement. Dr. Girouard McCann herself was not sure how people would react; in an interview with The Harborlight, she stated that she “had no idea, to tell you the truth, I honestly did not know how they would react.”

Senior class president Max Giarrusso admitted he “was shocked when I heard about Girouard McCann’s retirement. The day after she announced it, rumors spread fast, and it took a few days before any students knew exactly what was going on.”

Rumors did spread quickly, but one fact was certain: those at Hingham High School were not ready to see Dr. Girouard McCann leave our community. Teachers were seen wearing “PGM” buttons out of support for the principal. Additionally, many teachers, students, and parents attended Hingham School Committee meetings to stay informed and see what they could do to possibly influence the committee in allowing  Dr. Girouard McCann to delay her retirement for one year.

When Dr. Girouard McCann initially submitted her retirement to the committee, she and her husband planned to retire together.  After his unexpected death in August 2016, many staffers and students supported Dr. Girouard McCann’s request to work another year as a way to adjust to her unexpected life change before adding a second life change-retirement. 

Senior Matt Rice wrote a letter, signed by over 100 students, and recited it at a recent school committee meeting, voicing his and his fellow students’ support for Dr. Girouard McCann. “After learning about what happened,” Matt Rice states, “I just tried to let the school committee and Dr. Girouard McCann know how much of a positive impact she has made over the years. I was really happy to see current students, Hingham graduates, and parents calling and Facebook messaging me to ask what they could do.”

Dr. Girouard McCann noted that she was “touched” by the support from students surrounding her retirement. “I had no idea that was going to happen that night [at the school committee meeting], that took me totally by surprise. It was a very nice surprise.” Dr. Girouard McCann added, “You never know when you’re the principal, it’s not like you’re a teacher and you’re in the classroom every day and you get to know the kids well. As you go up, and I became assistant principal and then principal, you move a little bit away from the kids…you don’t know what they think of you some of the time.”

Plenty of students at Hingham High School can agree that Dr. Girouard McCann definitely had a positive impact on our school. In interviews with The Harborlight, several students recounted their personal experiences with the principal.

A few of those students discussed the interactions they had with Dr. Girouard McCann after sexist incidents related to the Drama Club last year. After the cast of Shuddersome: Tales of Poe were faced with crude insults during an in-school performance, Dr. Girouard McCann pronounced her unwavering support for the Drama Club and hopes to improve the climate of the high school. When asked to share his personal experiences with the principal, Matt Rice states, “I remember last year, she came and spoke to some of the members of the Drama Club about what happened during the festival performance. She was incredibly supportive and did not try to mince words or hide anything about the horrible sexism we witnessed that day.”

Dr. Girouard McCann did take great steps towards improving school climate. A climate committee which the principal frequents was organized, she permitted the Drama Club to perform Slut, a play discussing rape culture, and PEERS, an organization geared towards mitigating and ending sexism and rape culture, was formed. Sophomore Abby Fennelly disclosed a similar experience to Matt Rice’s: “After the sophomore class was given a presentation by Katie Cappiello, playwright of Slut, a group of students decided to hold a meeting to discuss what we learned about rape culture. From there sprung PEERS, a club dedicated to terminating rape culture in our school. When the elected representative of PEERS (myself and four others) met with Dr. Girouard McCann to discuss our goals and plans for the rest of the year, she was encouraging, enthusiastic, and above all, supportive. Her support of student initiatives like this do not go unappreciated.”

Although these students expressed their gratitude for their experiences with the principal surrounding controversial issues at our school, others found that just her support of all of our school’s communities touched them. Senior Natalie Gebhardt recounts her personal experience with the principal through HHS Chorus. “A positive experience I’ve had with Dr. Girouard McCann could be in general after every chorus concert when she visits the chorus room and compliments the ensemble on our performance, or when the chorus sang our song ‘No Time’ for her earlier in the year, a nineteenth century prayer song about returning home after a long journey.”

Dr. Girouard McCann has made her support of all of the communities at HHS very clear during her time as principal, attending musicals, sports events, concerts, art shows, and plays.

Despite being principal and finding herself further away from students than she would be as a teacher, Dr. Girouard McCann still manages to make small but significant connections with students. In our interview with Natalie Gebhardt, she also commended on our principal’s efforts to bond with students, noting that Dr. Girouard McCann recently “complimented [her] style for its professional nature.”

Senior Nick Raphaelson also noted a positive personal interaction he had with Dr. Girouard McCann, stating that she “approved [his] independent study very quickly. [His] independent study idea, to write a book, was not conventional, but I believe Dr. Girouard McCann supports unconventional ideas that could teach us valuable lessons, like her approval of Slut.”

Clearly, many students believe that Dr. Girouard McCann has made many, beneficial changes to the high school. As Senior Hannah Kelman effectively puts it, “Dr. Girouard McCann, in the past seventeen years, has turned Hingham High into one of the best schools in the state. That’s not my opinion, that is evident from stats and rankings. She is fairly progressive with art and theater programs, and she works hard to create a welcoming environment”.

The most common qualities surrounding the principal that students mentioned in their interviews were ‘fairness” and “open-mindedness.”

Students hope to see similar qualities in the next principal to lead Hingham High School, but they also hope to see a continuation of the progressive changes Dr. Girouard McCann made during her tunure at Hingham High School. Natalie Gebhardt hopes “that our next principal shows the same dedication to the school and works to improve the school’s climate.”

School climate has evidently become a concern for many people at the high school, and students hope to see the situation continue to improve. Senior Lucy Collins hopes to see a principal that “will take steps to significantly reduce student stress levels.”

Many of the students at Hingham High School agree that they believe Dr. Girouard McCann made a positive impact on the school and continues to every day.  They will miss working with such a supportive principal. The feeling surrounding her departure is mutual between the student body and the principal: we are upset to see her go and she is upset to have to leave us.

“I’m very sad about [leaving]. I’ve worked in schools since I was twenty-one. I started teaching right out of college, and I’ve worked every year ever since, so I’ve always worked with kids,” reveals Dr. Girouard McCann, “It will be weird. It will be really weird, not to be with kids.”

It certainly will be weird for us, too. 

Just as she has always held high expectations for us as students and as a school community, the student body and the staff here at The Harborlight can only hope that our future principal will be as professional, supportive, and classy as Dr. Girouard McCann. 

She certainly leaves big shoes to fill.