By EVA HANEGRAAFF
NORTH READING — For the past 21 years, Christine Molle has brightened the lives of students during her career at the E. Ethel Little School. She has done amazing things to benefit the school community such as win the Blue Ribbon Award, start up a student council, and kiss a pig. She has announced that she plans to retire this year, with all who know her sharing the same belief that she will be thoroughly missed.
In Molle’s time at the Little School, serving as both a teacher for six years and a principal for 15, she has loved every minute, expressing the difficulty of retirement in saying, “It’s a very hard decision to make, I was very emotional about it. It’s a big part of life; you get up and go to work every day with the same people for 21 years and you feel like you’re making an impact with children and families and so it was a tough decision.”
Molle’s decision was something in progress for quite some time. “For five years, I always knew that this would be the year I would be leaving,” she said. “When this year’s fifth grade were in kindergarten, I remember when they came in and I thought this is the class that I am going to be leaving with. They’re going to leave the Little School at the same time I am going to leave the Little School.”
EARLY CAREER
While at the end of her career, it is only fitting to take a look at what drew Molle to a career in elementary education in the first place. She said this passion started for her at age five. “From the minute I walked into school, I loved everything about school. I loved my teachers, I loved seeing my friends; I loved everything about it. I was so infatuated with my teachers and excited about learning that I just decided to follow on that path,” she recalled.
Beyond simply the school environment, Molle loved educating from a young age as well. “I remember when I was in first grade or second grade, my dad bought me a blackboard and he mounted it to the wall in the basement and I had all kinds of different colored chalk and I would almost play school by myself.”
In addition to a deep passion from such a young age, her early career is much more unique than many may realize. “When I graduated from college, it was at a time when there weren’t a lot of teaching positions around,” she said. Molle is referring to graduating around the time Proposition 2½ was passed. Proposition 2½ is a Massachusetts law that was enacted in the 1980s that limits the amount of revenue a community can raise through property taxes by limiting the percentage in which this amount can be increased from year to year to be just 2½ percent. This made it so communities could not as easily raise funds that could be allocated to teacher salaries and the school systems.
“Proposition 2 ½ had just been voted in and towns were laying off teachers and so I didn’t go into teaching right away out of college,” Molle explains, adding, “I went into the business world for quite a few years and then I stayed home for a while and took care of my kids when they were little, and then I came back into teaching about 25 years ago.” She taught at a Catholic school for four years before finally arriving at the Little School where she never left.
BLUE RIBBON AND STUDENT COUNCIL
In 2019, under her principalship, the Little School won the National Blue Ribbon Award. The Little School was one of only 362 schools in the United States that was recognized with this award that year. The Blue Ribbon Award was given to the Little School under the “Exemplary High Performing Schools” award category. The school qualified for the award by being in the top 15 percent of all Massachusetts public schools in the most recent standardized tests when looking at the entire school, and within the top 40 percent in terms of test scores within the state when looking at each subgroup within the school. “We’re very proud of that banner that hangs outside,” Molle explains. She adds, “It was nice to be recognized on a federal level.”
Molle’s accomplishments did not stop here. Just this past year, she fulfilled a goal by starting a student council at the Little School, further expanding the experiences and opportunities of the students in a way that guarantees a lasting legacy. “I have been trying for years to get one up and running but we needed an advisor,” she commented. “Mrs. Pepper has stepped up and they’re doing some really fine things.” This year, the Little School student council has taken on various community service projects that have served to both better the world around them as well as expand the students’ horizons in terms of their understanding of the value of volunteering.
Some projects the student council has done include Valentines for Veterans, making food baskets for the North Reading Food Pantry in December, and putting together and hosting their own Veterans’ Day Assembly for the whole school. “I think it’s important that kids, especially kids that are going off to middle school, that they learn to get involved and it’s important to hear their voices and hear what they have to say and consider their point of view,” Molle said. The student council is made up of students from three classes, with three from each of the fifth grade classes and four from a third class, making 10 in total.
THE PIG
While many know Molle for her numerous accomplishments and exceptional leadership qualities, many students remember her fondly for her humor. In 2015, she performed her most incredible stunt to date. It all started with a story entitled “Our Principal Promised to Kiss a Pig” that Molle read to the students. “It was all part of a reading incentive program,” she recalled.
In the book, a teacher promises to kiss a pig if the students read a certain number of books that school year. To mimic the events of the story, in 2015, Molle promised to kiss a pig if the students read for 75,000 minutes. When, by the predetermined end date, the students had actually read for 114,000 minutes, Molle decided to kiss the pig twice during an assembly held for all the students.
“I try to be as lighthearted with the students as I can on a daily basis,” Molle said. “I think it’s important that kids feel comfortable and safe, and obviously, we want kids to love school. We want them to love being here.”
This event was also incredibly beneficial because, as Molle explained, “I think it’s important to set goals for kids and tell them that if they achieve the goal, this will happen.” She adds, “I really didn’t want to kiss a pig, but I did and I actually kissed the pig twice that day!” Molle hopes to do this same reading incentive program again this year and is currently trying to find a pig in time.
While she is ready for retirement, there are some things she will always miss. “The hardest part of leaving this job is leaving the kids,” she said. “You just grow to love the kids. If they come to pre-K here, they are here for seven or eight years. You really learn so much about them that they become like your own kids.”
“They just make me happy, they really do.” She smiles, adding, “I always say, if you are having a bad day, go down to kindergarten. You cannot go into kindergarten and come out in a bad mood. You just can’t.” She adds jokingly, “It’s the happiest place on earth.”
But the kids are not the only aspect she will miss. “The faculty and staff are like a second family to me. When you’re together with people for 21 years every single day, it’s hard not to become attached to them.”
Molle sums up her career by saying, “It’s been a joy. It really has. I won’t miss having to get up at 5:30 every day and I won’t miss having to pick out a new outfit to wear every day, but I will miss everything.”