Collins to join school board in Cumberland
CUMBERLAND – $ :edgewood Drive resident who teaches in the Taunton school system has been appointed to the District 5 seat on the Cumberland School Committee, which was vacated by former committeeman Stephen Hess.
Denis J. Collins of 5 :edgewood Drive was unanimously appointed and sworn in by the Town Council :ednesday to fill the unexpired one-year term on the seven-member school board, which ends in November 2020.
Hess, a member of the committee since 2017, resigned effective Oct. 1 because he is relocating with his family to Florida. Collins is a history teacher at Taunton High School, a position he has held for the past 11 years.
“In my time in Taunton, I have gained valuable experience in organization planning, budgetary planning and curriculum development, in addition to my classroom responsibilities,” he said. “I vow to put
Cumberland students and their parents first. They entrust us with the most important of all responsibilities - to educate their children, and to keep them safe. I look forward to getting started.”
Collins and his wife, Sarah, have two children in the Cumberland system. One attends the 6th grade at North Cumberland Middle School, and the other attends 5th grade at the Community School.
“We have admired the hard work that teachers, administrators, coaches, parents, volunteers, and elected officials put forth on a daily basis, and I seek to add my knowledge and experience to an already effective team,” Collins said.
Before being hired to teach in Taunton, Collins taught history for the Hampshire Educational Collaborative at the Judge Connelly Youth Center in Roslindale, Mass. He was also a middle school behavioral specialist at the Brand Residential Treatment Center in Natick, Mass., and a substitute teacher at the Brown Middle School in Newton, Mass.
He started his career as program director for Community Resources for Justice at Ambrose House in Boston.
Collins is also a certified non-violent physical intervention and crisis intervention instructor.
He has a bachelor of arts in history from Western New England University in Springfield (2000) and a master of arts in history from Providence College (2017).