Newton elementary school principal who was supposed be greeting students on the first day of school instead went to the hospital after delivering his daughter in the family minivan.

Mark Nardelli, principal of Horace Mann Elementary School, was bringing his overdue wife, Christine Dardia, to the hospital at about 2 a.m. on Wednesday when the baby just couldn’t wait. So Nardelli pulled over and delivered the baby himself on the side of the highway.

A state police spokesman says troopers were on the scene within two minutes of Nardelli’s 911 call, but the baby was faster.

The little girl, Alora Grace, weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces, and was doing well at the hospital with her mother. She has two older sisters.