Education
Garan Mullin Royle School

Royle School Interim Principal Garan Mullin Named Permanent Principal of the School

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After half a year as interim principal of Royle School, Garan Mullin has been appointed principal by the Darien Board of Education. The previous principal, Dean Ketchum, resigned about two weeks before the start of the school year, on Aug. 16, 2019. At the time, schools Superintendent Alan Addley gave no reason for Ketchum’s resignation. The school district sent out this announcement on Friday:

At Wednesday’s meeting, the Darien Board of Education unanimously appointed Garan Mullin as principal of Royle Elementary School.

Education

Kindergarten Immunizations Low at Royle, Ox Ridge Schools, Wide Variations Across Town

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Kindergarten children at Royle and Ox Ridge schools in Darien had so many exemptions to state student vaccination requirements in the last school year that the schools are among 134 across the state that fall below the recommended 95% rate. At Royle School, the vaccination rate was only 92.6%; at Ox Ridge, 94.7%, according to data for the 2018-2019 school year just released by the state Department of Public Health. Hindley was the only other school in town with some parents who didn’t have their children vaccinated, and there the rate was 98.7% vaccinating. The rate was 100% at Tokeneke and Holmes schools. The percentage of Kindergarteners with medical or religious exemptions exactly tracks the vaccination rate in Darien schools: add up the vaccination percentage and the exemption percentage, and you get to 100% of kindergarteners in each of the town’s five schools.

Education
Dean Ketchum Royle School Principal in 2017 wide horizontal

Royle School Principal Dean Ketchum Resigns, Assistant Middlesex Principal Garan Mullin Named Interim Principal

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Dean Ketchum has resigned as principal of Royle Elementary School, Darien Schools Superintendent Alan Addley announced Monday afternoon in an email to parents. Addley gave no indication why Ketchum resigned or whether Ketchum was going to another job. Addley said that Dr. Garan Mullin, assistant principal of Middlesex Middle School, has been appointed interim principal of Royle for the upcoming school year, when a search for a permanent replacement will begin. ________

Update, 4:37 p.m.: According to a 2016 news release from Darien Public Schools, Ketchum, now 51, was an elementary school teacher in Oklahoma, and served as the executive director of school improvement at the Oklahoma Department of Education for three years before moving to New York in 2003. In New York, he was a middle school math teacher and assistant principal at PS 217 before being appointed principal at PS 212 (Midtown West School), where he served for ten years.