Guidance Director Retires

By Theresa Bibeau

Neil Culhane, renowned for his helpfulness and organizational skills, has been guidance director at Newtown High School for the past three years. He is also one of several Newtown High staff members retiring this June. Mr Culhane has decided to retire after being offered a job as the dean of college counseling at an independent school in Florida.

Mr Culhane has been in working in the field of education for almost 40 years, and his career began when he was hired as a substitute teacher at a Catholic school teaching spelling, reading, history, music, and art. He says that learning how to teach was his most difficult challenge, because he had majored in philosophy, and the transition to teaching was a tricky one.

However, he “fell in love with teaching and education” right away, and working with students with learning disabilities quickly lead him to the discovery that he had a passion for not only teaching, but counseling students.

When asked about his favorite part of being a guidance counselor, Mr Culhane answered, “When a student comes to the realization that they appreciate the work that you’ve done for them, and says thank you. It validates my hard work.”

He has wonderful things to say about Newtown High, and explains that it is hard to pin down the one thing that he will miss the most about working there. He says that overall it is “the people, students and staff. The community itself is passionate about education, learning, and teaching.”

He also says that he feels the entrepreneurial programs in Newtown, such as the culinary, technology, and greenery programs, are an extremely positive attribute unique to school systems like Newtown. “These are just such valid and real learning experiences. Kids are applying what they learn.”