Hilary Sturgis will become associate principal of Hildreth Elementary School starting July 1, filling the last major administrative position in the school district’s new leadership team. Superintendent Linda Dwight announced Sturgis’ hiring at the June 13 School Committee meeting.
Coming to Harvard “feels like coming home,” Sturgis said in a brief phone interview. Her family lived on the Harvard-Boxborough line when she was growing up, and her mother and grandmother still live nearby.
Sturgis brings experience in both elementary teaching and school administration. She taught third grade in the Webster public schools from 2011 to 2015. When the Webster district reorganized, she switched to teaching fifth-grade math and science in the Webster Middle School from 2015 to 2019. While math had once been a challenging subject for her, she said, teaching those subjects “created a love for math and science.”
Since 2019, Sturgis has been assistant principal in Westford. Her position covers two schools, one for grades K-2 and the other for grades 3-5. One of the things that drew her to HES, she said, is the chance to see children’s progression through all the elementary grades in one school.
As part of her position as assistant principal in Westford, Sturgis has also been student support leader for the past year, overseeing the special education program. For several previous years, she was responsible for ensuring the Westford district’s compliance with federal civil rights law that requires equal treatment for people with disabilities. Sturgis also served on the crisis management teams for her school and for the Westford district, as well as holding several other team leadership positions.
Sturgis majored in psychology and received a Master of Arts in teaching from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. She later earned a master’s degree in school administration from Endicott College in Beverly.
At HES, Sturgis will be working closely with incoming Principal Rebecca Katsh-Singer, who is also joining the district team on July 1.
