Mr. Gerard Dery - Building Principall

Mr. Dery, our school principal, is a seasoned educator whose career spans many years of educational experiences in six distinct school districts throughout Massachusetts as well as one school district in Vermont.

He returned to college after serving in the Air Force, and earned his first degree in Elementary Education and English. His first teaching position was as a fourth and fifth grade teacher in Belmont, Massachusetts. Throughout his educational career, Mr. Dery has taught in grades one through eight in a variety of subject areas.

He earned his Master’s Degree in Educational Administration at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and soon after that became a Teaching Principal in Clarksburg, Massachusetts (Grades K-8). Mr. Dery has also been principal in a variety of other school districts including, Shaftsbury, Vermont (Grades K-5), Richmond, Massachusetts (Grades K-8), Littleton, Massachusetts (Grades 3-6), and Oxford, Massachusetts (Grade K-4). Most recently he received his Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Educational Leadership from the University of New England.

Mr. Dery has also been actively involved in a number of professional associations and has held leadership roles at both the state and national levels. He served a number of years as a member of the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals’ Association (MESPA), and has also served as President of MESPA. Mr. Dery is also the Past-President of the Northeast Regional Principal’s Council. He served as State Representative to Massachusetts at the National level for the National Association of Elementary (and Middle) School Principals (NAESP). Still actively involved, he presently serves on the National Board of Directors for NAESP as Zone 1 Director, serving and representing Elementary and Middle school principals in the New England area.

Mr. Dery has lived in the Berkshires for close to 25 years and is pleased to once again be in the Berkshires as an active member of the educational community. He is married with two grown daughters, two dogs, and three cats. He enjoys reading, traveling, music of all kinds, gardening, and the outdoors. Nessacus Regional Middle School is an exciting place to be and he looks forward to many productive and rewarding years as the Middle School Principal.

Mr. Tracey Goodrich - Assistant Principal

Our assistant principal, Mr. Goodrich, attended many different colleges. He went to Berkshire Community College where he majored in Environmental Science, University of Massachusetts where he majored in Natural Resources and minored in teaching, Westfield State College for his teaching certification, and finally he attended the American International College for his masters Degree in Administration.

Before Nessacus, Mr. Goodrich taught as a carpentry instructor. He was also a class adviser for two different classes, and coached soccer and cross-country skiing at Taconic High School, where he had attended school.

He plans to work at Nessacus until he retires or until an opportunity arises that he just can’t resist.  In his free time he likes to get involved with his two kids and their activities like soccer and figure skating. He also loves the outdoors. He likes to play soccer, archery, shoot skeet and cross country ski.