Assumption Elementary gets new principal

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

MILLBURY – John Piselli, the new principal at Assumption Elementary School, says it was the movement of the Holy Spirit that brought him to the school. His past led to his present.
Perhaps it began with baptism in 1967. The priest said to his mother, “You have two other boys; can this one be for God?” Mr. Piselli says he doesn‘t remember the rest of the story.
“When I was 13, she probably wished she said, ‘Keep him,’ like they did to Samuel,” he quips, recalling the story in I Samuel 1.
 More seriously he says, “Church has always been my place of refuge.” His mentors were priests, for whom he was an altar server. He played drums for contemporary liturgies, and attended and helped lead Emmaus retreats for youth, offered through his parish, St. Aloysius in New Caanan, Connecticut.
The retreats “developed an enormous sense of loving community,” he recalls. “The same people who were on that retreat with me became my friends in school. They were the jocks and the preps I would never associate with.” But they connected on retreat, and their experience of community flowed into their public school.
“I loved these people,” Mr. Piselli rejoices. “I loved Jesus. Jesus loves me. … One of my best friends became my best man.” Mr. Piselli and Michele (Peladeau) Piselli married in 1992 at St. Mark Parish in Sutton and have four boys ages 20-28. Mr. and Mrs. Piselli are lectors and eucharistic ministers at their parish, St. Brigid. He also plays drums monthly for Life Teen Masses at St. Joseph Parish in Charlton.
Mr. Piselli says he spent 30 years in human services. He was trained to be a vocational rehabilitation counselor, which he saw as an opportunity to help people with disabilities find God’s calling for them. He also worked in Westborough public schools and was a school administrator for YOU, Inc., which serves at-risk young people and families in Worcester County.
“Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve gravitated to the leadership role,” he says. “I look at the work that’s been done and ask, ‘What’s missing, the presence of which would make a difference?’”
Before entering the workforce, he was a Catholic school student. He recalls a nun telling him, “You can’t let these boys bully you; you have to fight back.”
“That’s not what Jesus wants us to do,” he replied.
The next day, the girls took his hat. Trying to retrieve it, he pushed one of them – and ended up in the principal’s office!
As a principal himself, he doesn’t want that office to be scary for students.
“My goal is to help them see how wonderfully they’re made by God,” and “move people toward one another in relationship,” he says. So he asked a misbehaving kindergartner, “Do you know that you are a good boy? What can we do to help you get along better with others?” Asking students their version of what happened puts him in the role of listening with love, the principal says.   
Part of his contract agreement when he was hired was to read, “To Teach as Jesus Did,” a U.S. bishops’ pastoral message on Catholic education, he says. He was moved by a sentence in section 6: “Proclaiming the Gospel is a perennial task and joy for the Church of Jesus Christ.”
He says he doesn’t see much joy in society or church.
“People pursue happiness, and happiness is a farce,” he maintains. “Joy is a spiritual treasure. … There’s a resurrected Jesus after the crucifixion. … On my letterhead are the words faith, community and action. It’s difficult to have all three of these without joy. There’s joy in suffering, hard work, building community.”
Mr. Piselli marvels at how students are thrilled to be at Assumption Elementary – like the pre-kindergartner whose father had to drag her away from the school.
“I want the best-kept secret in Catholic education in Millbury to not be that anymore,” Mr. Piselli says.
He wants students to excel academically, learn Church traditions, develop as cultural thinkers and become people of integrity.
Father Daniel R. Mulcahy, pastor of St. Brigid and Our Lady of the Assumption parishes, oversees the parish school, and he and Deacon Ronald B. Buron, who serves at the parishes, are spiritual mentors for the school community, Mr. Piselli says. So, there’s an evangelization that happens.
He also expresses gratitude for his administrative team: Julie Olsen, former principal, who is continuing to teach grade 4 and help with the curriculum; Gayle Teixeira, assistant principal and finance director; and Paula Henault, long-time secretary.
There are currently 133 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 8, Mr. Piselli says. He wants to increase enrollment to fill each grade with 15 students, preserving the small-classroom setting for individualized attention.
Alumni could help the school grow and could enrich students’ lives by sharing their expertise, he says. He’d like them to form community with each other and continue their spiritual journey with the school.
Mr. Piselli aims to “show the light of Christ through our living of community,” and welcome the townspeople to events such as a crowning of the Blessed Mother.
“It comes back to that word ‘joy,’” he says. “Our love for one another is, I hope, joyful.” The world will “know we are Christians by our love.”