When Jake McCandless first took charge of W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School in Summer 2024, it was a community in crisis. A controversial 2023 police search for a book about queer gender identity triggered community outcry, lawsuits against the town and police department, and the school’s then-principal Miles Wheat leaving for a job across the state line in Chatham, New York.
“I have never, ever made the mistake as a leader of thinking I am the smartest person in the room or the most talented or gifted person in the room. I've really worked hard over the years to be reflective and to appreciate the couple of things that I think I am really strong at and grow all of the other things. But as I'm growing all the things I'm not so strong at, I'm really developing a good radar for the people that are around me who are wonderful and brilliant and naturally talented at the things, the many things that I'm not. I work really hard to find the good in every person and in every situation, and I work hard to listen more than I speak," McCandless told WAMC. “I just think being here and having a lot of respect for the people that come in and do the work directly with and for kids every day, and letting them say what's on their mind, and in figuring out just multiple ways that I can support their work and their mission, as we work together to support our work and our mission has been the has been the key. And I'm really, really pleased that the community seems to perceive that that work and appreciate that work. It's been a really good fit.”
It's been such a good fit that the Berkshire Hills Regional School District has approved an extension to his contract.
“So he's going to stay with us as principal for at least three years, through June of 2028, which is really great news for the school and the district and all of us. We’re really excited," said Superintendent Peter Dillon. “He came in with a fresh set of eyes. He appreciated many of the good things we were doing, and he started noticing in a very quiet and deliberate way things or areas where we could grow and do better. And he's a really thoughtful listener, and is engaging his colleagues in in places where we can do that.”
Dillon says McCandless has earned the trust of the district as it attempts to implement new policies across its four schools and among over 1,100 students.
“A thing we started across our schools this year was really rethinking our cell phone policy and students’ access to that," he told WAMC. "So, he's a great person to come in when we started doing that, and effectively, students aren't using cell phones in our elementary or middle or even our high school from the start of the day to the end of the day. So, that's great.”
McCandless has his own goals for W.E.B. Du Bois Middle School.
“We are continuing really full steam ahead with proficiency-based instruction and proficiency-based learning and assessment, where we're getting away from A's and B's and C's and D's or percentages on a paper, and really focusing on where are you in terms of skill and knowledge development," he told WAMC. "And this faculty has been wonderful in driving that work. I think clearly we have work to do in terms of making sure that our fifth through eighth graders understand their own their own power and their own efficacy and their ability to control their own learning, that they are not pinballs on a pinball table of education, that they can really drive their own learning.”
McCandless previously served as superintendent for the Mount Greylock, Pittsfield, and Lee public school districts.
