Meet Marc Hayes, the new Dartmouth Middle School principal

Twenty-two years ago, Marc Hayes began his career in education as a teacher and football coach in New Bedford. Now, he’s stepping into the role of Dartmouth Middle School principal.

Hayes began his career in education shortly after graduating from college in 2004 and first joined the Dartmouth Middle School staff in 2010 as an eighth grade math teacher.

For the past seven years, Hayes has worked in the middle school’s administration, first as an assistant principal, then as associate principal.

“It’s certainly been a good journey, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of really talented and committed educators and administrators,” Hayes said.

He said, “I’m super fortunate that this seat came available in this place where I want to be.”

Hayes said that when he started teaching he hadn’t pictured himself working in administration, but overtime as he started working more closely with administrators, who encouraged him to pursue the opportunity.

“The pathway for me has been less about ‘I want to be an administrator’ or ‘I want to be the principal.’ It’s a whole lot more, ‘I want to be an administrator at Dartmouth Middle School,’” he said.

Hayes said his role as principal is to support the teachers, students and families.

“I’m here to support the community as a whole … whatever I can do or provide,” he said.

For the upcoming school year, Hayes said he would like to “provide a really good experience for all of our students and teachers.”

On a broader scale, his “biggest mission” is to provide students with the tools they need to reach their goals and support them in their journeys.

Hayes said that the middle school’s administrative team is a relatively new and young team and said that he would like to continue to build and strengthen the team.

He noted that one of the middle school’s strengths has always been its “longstanding, strong administrative teams that have been able to really build together.”

“My main personal goal for this year is to now start to really build that team and have a good group in place that can really start to strengthen and move programs through at our middle school,” he said.

Hayes said that the new school year won’t bring many changes to the middle school, with the focus set on continuing to strengthen the school’s programs and services.

For Hayes, the main responsibility of a principal is to create a situation where everyone can be supported and to be the person who can “remove some of the barriers to success for people.”

This can come in the shape of making sure the building looks put together, giving teachers the opportunity to craft their classrooms into spaces where students can “learn and be successful” and ensuring the secretarial staff have the support they need to keep the building running.

“What it really comes down to is, we help make sure that we have a safe and supportive environment for students so that they feel welcomed, and they feel comfortable, and that in itself will impact behaviors and instruction,” he said.