Paul J. Heffernan

Paul J. Heffernan served the Billerica schools for a quarter century as an elected official and then as an administrator, ending his career as superintendent of schools. Looking back in his last annual report, he described himself as "a former member of the Billerica School Committee in the sixties, a member of the Shawsheen Valley School Committee in the seventies, Assistant Superintendent of Schools and Superintendent of Schools in the seventies and early eighties."

He was elected to the School Committee in March 1959 with 2,307 votes and was its chairman from 1960 into 1963, years when, as he later wrote, the system was increasing its enrollments and building schools. He was re-elected in 1962 and in 1965, served as vice chairman in 1966, and remained on the committee until 1968. Through the 1960s he was also an elected town meeting member.

In 1968 the School Committee reorganized the central administration to include an elementary curriculum coordinator and supervisor, and Heffernan filled that post. When the administration was reorganized again in 1974, he and Howard R. Goodrow "of central administration" were elected to the new positions of assistant superintendent, Heffernan for elementary instruction, with his appointment dated June 11, 1974. In 1972 he was elected to the Shawsheen Valley Regional Vocational School Committee, which governed the regional vocational high school on Cook Street, and he served as one of Billerica's two members, with Kenneth L. Buffum, until his term expired in March 1981.

That same month he was appointed superintendent to succeed William H. Flaherty. His first report called 1981 "a difficult year for the Billerica School Department": under Proposition 2 1/2 many employees were let go, the Howe and Talbot schools were closed, and reading aides, intramural sports and several art, music and library services were cut. His final report, for 1983, contrasted a system that had been building schools and expanding programs in the sixties with one closing schools and reducing staff in the eighties, while insisting that "an excellent education is still available to all students who desire one." He resigned in June 1984 and was succeeded by Robert J. Calabrese.

In retirement he was appointed to the Finance Committee in 1984. In 1987 he was elected to an unexpired two-year term on the Housing Authority with 3,918 votes and was appointed to the Council on Aging, which he chaired; he resigned from both in 1988. He died on November 24, 1989, over the Thanksgiving holiday, and the Council on Aging recorded its sadness at the passing of its former chairman. The town report for 1989 carries a memorial listing his years of service.

References

1. Election Results, 1959 (School Committee)
2. Town Officers, 1960 (School Committee chairman)
3. Superintendent Report, 1974 (Assistant Superintendent)
4. Superintendent Report, 1981 (first report)
5. Superintendent Report, 1983 (final report)
6. Council on Aging Report, 1989
7. In Memoriam, 1989