Francis X. Callahan

Francis X. Callahan, a graduate of Boston College with the degrees of B.S. and M.Ed., was one of the new teachers the School Committee appointed in 1960. He joined the staff of the Ditson School in Pinehurst as a teacher under principal Esther A. Moglia, teaching in the upper elementary grades.

In 1964 he moved to the Howe Junior High Elementary Section, the sixth-grade classes housed in the Howe Junior High building, as a sixth-grade teacher and assistant principal under Catherine L. Torre. The next year he became principal of the Pollard School and of the Howe Junior High Elementary Section. His report for 1965 describes crowded buildings: the Pollard's 284 pupils in grades 4 to 6 came mostly by bus from North and East Billerica, the fourth and fifth grades were on double sessions until the new John F. Kennedy School opened in East Billerica, and the sixth-grade section averaged 39 pupils a room in September until another class was formed.

In 1966 he succeeded Miss Moglia as principal of the Ditson School. That year the school had 642 pupils in twenty classrooms; to relieve crowding, pupils were transferred to the Kennedy and Vining schools, and "a program of Modern Mathematics has been introduced into the third grade curriculum." Enrollment rose by 85 pupils to 727 in 1967. On November 16, 1967, a fire started in the cafeteria light fixtures on a day when there was no school because of the weather, and it "caused extensive damage to the Cafeteria, the Nurse's Room, the Secretary's Office, and two third grade classrooms."

He led the Ditson for twelve years. In 1978 he became principal of the Vining School at Nuttings Lake, succeeding K. Shirley Cowdrey, while William Downing followed him at the Ditson. He retired in 1994, and the school department's list of that year's retirements credited him with 34 years of service in Billerica.

References

1. School Department report, 1960: teacher appointments (Francis X. Callahan)
2. School staff, January 1962 (1961 report): Ditson School, Grade 6, Boston College B.S., M.Ed., began 1960 (page printed upside down)
3. School staff, 1964: Howe Jr. High Elementary, Grade 6, Asst. Principal
4. Center Elementary Schools report, 1965 (signed as Principal)
5. School staff, 1965: Principal, Pollard and Jr. High Elementary
6. Ditson School report, 1966 (signed as Principal)
7. Ditson School report, 1967 (enrollment 727; cafeteria fire; signed as Principal)
8. School Department report, 1994: retirements, Francis Callahan, 34 years