Dan Hausermann takes over as interim principal at Concord Middle School on Aug. 1, right after Justin Cameron wraps up nine years leading the school on July 31 — and if a recent staff meeting is any indication, the handoff has already begun.
A quiet moment that said a lot.
At a July meeting in the Ellen Garrison Building, Cameron sat at a conference table with Hausermann, Assistant Principal Olive Bradford, and K-8 Assistant METCO Director Andre Thomas. When the conversation turned to Lighthouse, a new program supporting students returning after extended absences, Cameron simply stepped back. "Dan's leading this," he said, letting Hausermann walk the group through how the program will support struggling students academically and emotionally — a small moment, but a telling one about where Cameron's focus has shifted these final weeks.
Where Cameron's headed next.
Cameron is leaving to become director of student services for Ashland Public Schools, overseeing services for students from early childhood through age 22. He started his career in special education, moved into a seventh-grade classroom, and spent 15 years as a principal before landing at CMS. "I only have eight years left until retirement," Cameron told The Concord Bridge. "I'm looking to end my career in the area that I started in 25 years ago."
Nine years that included a building, a pandemic, and a federal settlement.
Cameron's tenure covered a lot of ground. The new middle school building came in at $102.8 million, right in line with the original budget, at $560 per square foot — a rate officials now say often tops $1,000 in today's market. Under his leadership, CMS earned state recognition for its 2025 MCAS performance, with its Enrichment Block program driving a 20-point growth in Student Growth Percentiles and lifting math proficiency from 53% to 71% since 2021.
His final year wasn't without difficulty. The Concord-Carlisle Regional School District settled with the U.S. Department of Justice over what the DOJ described as "a series" of antisemitic incidents at both the high school and middle school levels, prompting a first reading of revised harassment and non-discrimination policies in May.
How colleagues remember his leadership.
Bradford, who joined CMS in 2019, pointed to Cameron's steadiness during the pandemic. "We thought it was going to be two weeks," she recalled of the 2020 closures. "We were starting from scratch on what school was going to look like." Thomas said Cameron "always helped our students be in the front of the line" when it came to METCO programming.
What Hausermann is carrying forward.
Hausermann said the collaborative culture Cameron built gives him real confidence heading into the interim year, describing how ideas at CMS tend to emerge organically — "from walking down the hallway by a teacher who says, 'I had this idea,' and you're like, 'That's brilliant. Let's do it.'" Cameron's parting advice, by his own account, was simple: support the staff.
The DOJ-required policy revisions are set to return for a second reading with district counsel this fall.
