‘Not your father’s PE program’: Mitch Finnegan retires after 20 years directing health program

Nearly every student who has passed through Weston Public Schools in the last two decades has come across Mitch Finnegan in their health class. And even if he didn’t teach them, the longtime educator certainly still had a hand in their development.

Finnegan, retiring this month after 22 years as the district’s director of health and physical education, has overseen the evolution of the school’s health and wellness program from an already solid curriculum to a top-of-the-state model for others around the region.

Finnegan and his staff over the years have introduced programs and curricula focused on suicide and dating abuse prevention and the brain science of addiction and human sexuality, as well as expanding junior health courses and increasing emphasis on social-emotional cognitive development to create a holistic learning experience for students. The department also expanded its curriculum to include three years of health education in high school, which he noted is “unusual.”

“That was present here in the curriculum before I got here. I think we’ve just taken it to an even higher level with the work that we’ve done over the last 22 years,” Finnegan said. “There’s an aspect that we always say, ‘It’s not your father’s PE program.’”

Before he taught in Weston, Finnegan coached the boys basketball team while he was teaching in Lexington. When the Weston position opened up, he was encouraged to apply, and eventually landed the role. A particularly attractive aspect of the job is that Weston requires its department heads to continue teaching, and Finnegan loved the idea of combining teaching responsibilities with curriculum development.

Eric Archambault, a former basketball player under Finnegan who is now a physical education teacher in North Reading, said his former coach was an inspiration for him and others. Finnegan’s focus on development, Archambault added, is why he has had such a lasting impact on Weston Public Schools.

“While he was a tremendous basketball coach, he cared about the development of his student-athletes and always had a long-term mindset in terms of developing young men,” Archambault said. “A lot of who I am today, both personally and professionally, was shaped by the lessons I learned from him.”

Finnegan’s proudest achievement is the incorporation of the suicide-prevention curriculum, as Weston was “one of the first districts” to introduce it. That work, as well as other initiatives undertaken by Finnegan and his staff has been recognized by peers around Massachusetts.

“One of the things that gives me satisfaction is how many other districts have called us to ask what we’re doing because they’ve heard about it,” Finnegan said. “I’m really proud of our staff that’s presented at statewide conferences … We’ve had a lot of people who shared the great work we’re doing here at the state level.”

Although the district’s work has been lauded, Weston Public Schools, like every other school system, was rocked by the pandemic. Changes in culture, too, such as the “general coarseness” that seems to have permeated into society are another challenge the district – which has an “incredibly kind group of students” – has to contend with, Finnegan said.

Though Covid’s impact was immense, he said many students seem to be rebounding quite well.

“The good news in the data from the last couple of years is that things are getting better quicker than we expected. When we came out of Covid, all of the indicators for mental health problems just went through the roof,” he said. “There may be fewer students in the more severe stages of a mental health issue, but among the students who are having them, it’s more severe.”

Alongside those mental health challenges are the general social changes that have become common in a world dominated by social media, cellphones and other screens.

“When I walk through the cafeteria and see eight kids at a lunch table all on their phones instead of sitting there talking to each other, it’s a concerning thing for me,” Finnegan said. “We’re making some movements as a district to try to avoid that. It’s a culture-wide issue with people only expressing themselves through technology. There’s a lot of brain science about how damaging that is.”

Work to address the social aspect of wellness is coming in the fall, when the district’s bell-to-bell cellphone ban takes effect in the high school.

While he helped build a holistic health program for the middle and high school, Finnegan said he is leaving with one unrealized vision: a full health education curriculum beginning in kindergarten. Finnegan said his parting goal is to “really encourage us to find a way to make sure we add that.”

As he heads into retirement, Finnegan says he is looking forward to spending time with his family, doing a little bit of travel – “nothing extravagant” – and kicking off a new consulting effort to help school districts “develop mental health systems for their students,” on top of his community and volunteer commitments.

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to work in Weston all these years,” Finnegan said. “For the most part, parents are incredibly supportive of the schools and the students are really engaged in their learning.”