Bartlett banter, baked bread & big kudos.

Byline: Ed Patnaude

COLUMN: So I've Heard

Bartlett Senior-Junior High School Principal Michael F. Hackenson had a general knowledge of town attitudes when he accepted an appointment to the Webster principal's job some years ago. And, yes, he gave up a similar post at Oxford High School.

Bartlett's accreditation was tentative, and the town was about to name its third high school principal and its third superintendent of schools in a decade or so when Mr. Hackenson made the lateral move, accepting the challenges attached to the BHS principal's office.

There was an intrigue in the assignment: Webster is his hometown so he knew his way around, he said on a recent morning, adding a couple of lines about public support of education.

"It (the job) was a challenge when I first came in," says Mr. Hackenson, "but I knew it was a good school."

Mr. Hackenson and the senior-junior school that he manages came into their own some time ago, but a report now says as much because of student gains. The Lake Parkway facility started the 2009-2010 school term with 867 students, including 141 seniors, keeping pace with the year-in to year-out statistics reported through part of the 1990s. Plus totals have been steady, if not significant.

Mr. Hackenson sums up changes in a few words - more programs and offerings, thanks to School Committee support, administrative guidance, voter endorsement, parent committees and, most notably, faculty perseverance. Of course, the school has taken advantage of the hand given to it. Mr. Hackenson thinks "Bartlett is a school on the move," citing graduate acceptances at Boston College, Brown University, North Carolina State, Georgia Tech, Texas Tech, St. John's University, where three undergraduates with Bartlett diplomas are enrolled, as well as Holy Cross and many area colleges. "That helps the reputation," he says.

I approached Mr. Hackenson's office after the televised report to the town School Committee, when current enrollment statistics were revealed. I generally review old figures from town reports in the public library, mostly to establish trends. Figures hit a downslide almost 50 years ago, after Webster set out as a district on its own and senior high tuition programs with Dudley were terminated, resulting in a Dudley-Charlton alliance. That district has been generally successful, with enrollment numbers for scholastic and athletic success.

Webster's hopes for a decent, one town district weren't as obvious, but things are in a surge because the School Committee and administrators are doing their best to enhance the town's educational offerings.

Incidently, Webster High School had 145 students, but only 16 seniors in 1909; that's 100 years ago, and five years before the name of the school was changed to Bartlett High.

Let's see, dialogue during a recent coffee klatch at McDonald's in Webster went something like this:

Irene Savageau to her husband, Roland, "We've got to stop at Shaw's on the way home. I want to pick up a few things, especially a loaf of bread."

Professor Bill Steglitz to no one in particular, "Doesn't anyone bake bread at home anymore?"

Irene, "Are you kidding!'' followed by a neigh-like sound from a couple of others.

Then, a woman seated nearby piped up, "My husband makes bread from scratch all of the time."

"Hey," Irene reacted, "give me your telephone number, I'll call him up and see if he'll sell me some." Pausing, she added, "I'll even pick it up."

The unidentified woman, "He'd probably make you some, but I don't think you'd pick it up," adding that her address is in Bradford, Ontario, Canada.

Finally, Roland Savageau, a retired long-distance trucker, asked: "Is Bradford the town with a long hill leading up to it?"

Many of the student athletes who distinguished themselves at Webster's Bartlett High School didn't track secondary pursuits, or keep scrapbooks, Athletics Hall of Fame Director John Mrazik has discovered.

Too bad!

With another athletics nominating session in the wings, and installation ceremonies scheduled to take place next year, the kind of data required to "document a career" is sometimes missing, says Mr. Mrazik, the former football coach and athletics director at Bartlett. The seven years out-of-school rule is another crimp, because teens don't typically preserve information.

But qualified candidates should persevere, says Mr. Mrazik, the author in retirement of railroading and historical volumes. Research has convinced him that all manner of material is available through the Chester C. Corbin Public Library. This is a given, but there's generally somebody within a family who has saved important information. Potential candidates are generally nominated by a close friend or by somebody in their family, says the retired Bartlett AD. "Getting the word out is the best way to get started."

June A. Chasse alluded to her late husband's standing as a medical practitioner in her contribution to "The People's Forum" Sept. 14. Dr. Adrien Chasse's work in family care may have influenced her take on government and insurance but, whatever, she caught my small town views.

I hope Telegram & Gazette subscribers read Mrs. Chasse's letter. If not, it's not too late to pick it up in Telegram.com archives. Make this my first endorsement ever of a letter to the editor.