By M. E. Jones

When Jenna Larrenaga started her job as principal of Shirley‘s Lura A. White Elementary School in July, she believed she’d found a perfect fit. Now, she’s sure of it.

In a recent interview, she explained why.

First, the size of the school—about 350 students in grades K-5—appealed to her, she said. And so did the community. “Everything was exactly what I wanted,” she said. “I inherited a great school. My hope and dream is to keep it going.”

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A resident of Sudbury, Larrenaga has three children ages 23, 20, and 17. The eldest is a teacher, she said, while the others are students, one at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and the youngest in high school.

A graduate of DC’s George Washington University, where she double-majored in French lit and psychology, Larrenaga earned a master‘s degree in elementary education at Boston College. She is licensed as a principal/assistant principal and in special education.

Her career in elementary education spans more than two decades and includes teaching and administrative posts in several Massachusetts communities, including Acton, Ashland, Bedford, and Lawrence, where she also taught an after-school enrichment class in French.

Larrenaga was assistant principal at C. T. Douglas Elementary School in Acton for ten years and later served as principal at Mindess Elementary School in Ashland before coming to Shirley.

When asked to identify the most challenging part of being a principal, Larrenaga observed, “Parent involvement is always key. There’s a nice balance here. Parents are receptive, even when they call with concerns. It’s a relationship we are framing.“

Since starting at LAW, Larrenaga has been reaching out as well as settling in. She hosted fall open house and a parent afternoon. She also assisted with morning car drop-off for three months. “I want to do that again,” she said.

Asked if she has any new programs planned for LAW, Larrenega said her aim isn’t to change things but to support students and enhance the learning environment. To that end, she meets with teachers every month to talk about core values, she said.

Exciting things are going on at LAW, Larrenaga said, including a program called Drop Everything and Play. A take on a national initiative several years ago called Drop Everything and Read, the DEAP idea is to target a time during the school day when work stops schoolwide, and other activities are set aside for 45 minutes of play, key to healthy development.

“Play is so important,” she said. Specifically, the focus is on board games. “It’s a lost art,” she said.

It goes something like this: teacher of reading and special ed teachers have board games in their classrooms to use during the designated DEAP period. Uno, for example, providesa simple but engaging card game for all ages as do other games, too. “Whatever the teachers may bring in,” Larrenaga said, “we play.“ Students gather in groups to play the games, with two adults assigned to each group.

Asked if play periods might be outside, too, she said it could be a scheduling challenge to include the whole school at once, but she didn’t rule it out. “Outdoor play is good for kids,” she said.

Larrenaga also mentioned a special reading initiative called Poem in Your Pocket, rolled out for Read Across America Week. “It’s amazing,” she said as she shared photos showing children with knitted pockets to tuck a poem into and read on the go.

In addition, LAW will welcome community readers to the school, she said, revisiting a longstanding tradition when teachers invite local notables and townsfolk to come in and read stories to kids in their classrooms.

All things considered, everything is aimed at engaging the kids, she said. “It’s all you hope to do.”