Introduction to the Litchfield Community
I have had the most memorable introduction to Litchfield in the past two weeks, and I am so grateful to the community for the warmest of welcomes. On Friday, January 16, the Intermediate School students and I met for a ‘town meeting style’ assembly for which they had prepared a large set of interview questions. Those questions, some of which I’ll answer below, serve as a perfect means of introducing myself to the Litchfield community.
To open the meeting, I told the students a little about myself as a child and how lucky I was to have a caring and creative mom. I shared with them a story my mother used to tell my sister and me about “a little red house with a little brown chimney that had no windows and no doors and a star inside.” My mother had always made the story seem like going on a magical adventure to find this house, and then she would take a red Macintosh apple out of the icebox (red house, brown chimney, no windows and doors) and cut it crosswise in half. There was always a star inside. She told the story to remind us to be interested in the world, not bored… to see things differently and to think about the world creatively, rather than always doing things rotely and routinely.
As I was sitting at my desk, writing this introduction, I received in my email this picture taken at lunch at the Intermediate School. It's message mean a great deal to me, and I will always return to it on tough days.
After my story it was time for the kids to raise their hands, come forward to the microphone, give their names, and ask their questions. I had a great deal of fun and was so proud of their interests.
Robert came forward and asked the first question: Why do we have so many snow days?
While kids like snow days, most adults do not. Here’s what happens, Robert. Sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning, I will receive an email from or talk on the phone with Mr. Jack Healy, who is Litchfield’s Director of Public Works. Road crews are already at work, sanding or plowing, and reporting in to Mr. Healy about the conditions on miles and miles of roads in Litchfield. At 4:15 a.m., I join a conference call with weatherman Mr. John Bagioni and all of the area Superintendents. There are at least a dozen of us. We hear the latest weather forecast, and everyone shares their town’s road reports because teachers will come from many different places to get to work. We begin to talk our district’s needs, and we listen to what others are thinking. Then, about 4:45, after everyone weighs in, we end our conference call; and I call Mr. Ed Drapp, who is Regional District 6’s superintendent. We think about inexperienced drivers at our high schools and your bus drivers both navigating slippery roads and sharing the roads with less careful drivers who may slide into them. We make the same decision; and in the end, it will always be about student and staff safety.
Sebastian wanted to know: Are you going to make changes to the school or the specials?Today, Sebastian, I met you and many of your teachers for the first or second time. I have only been in Litchfield for eight days. I want to continue to visit your schools and talk to your principal and teachers … and the staff and students working in the other two schools as well. I need to listen and find out what’s important to you. Staying in touch with the schools is how I will focus on what you and your teachers need to be successful every day. It's not my job to come here and start changing things around to suit myself. My job is to make sure that all of the people in charge -- from the teachers in your schools to your parents and our community, including, of course, the members of the Board of Education -- always keep their focus on one important question: What's best for kids?
Maya asked a seriously formal question: How did you get your job?
With a smile I told Maya it was a long process. I saw the advertisement for a new superintendent online; and the very first week I saw it, I applied by sending in a very detailed application with my resume, references, and college transcripts. I made an effort to reflect your community in my application. At the time, I was the Superintendent in Orange, Connecticut; and while I loved the teachers and students there, I missed working with a high school. And Litchfield is such a beautiful community with wide open spaces and a terrific school system. There won’t be as much shopping here; but it is more like the small town where I grew up, so it feels comfortable. The Board of Education called me for an interview, and I answered tough questions for an hour. Then they called me again, and I answered even tougher questions for an hour and a half. Finally, they traveled down to Orange where they met with the people with whom I was working to uncover what those people thought about my commitment to education and my leadership abilities. In the end, the Board offered me the job as your superintendent… and, I gladly accepted.
Maya’s card also asked: How many family members do you have?
I have a small family, Maya; but we are very close. I have two children who are grown up. My son is 39 and he works as a digital photographer and graphic artist for a large advertising firm in Greenville, South Carolina. My daughter is 37 and she stays at home taking care of my youngest grand-daughter who just turned five years old. She is a curious little girl with an interesting way of looking at everything around her. She is crazy for horses and dinosaurs. My son-in-law is in the Air Force. He repairs jet engines and ‘teaches drill’ to men and women serving in the Reserves. I also have an 18-year-old grand-daughter, who is a freshman in college and already involved in several civic clubs that do volunteer work and contribute to the community. She loves school, especially Spanish, social sciences, and government. She runs 5K races for fun, and enjoys reading, too. In the middle, I have a 13-year-old grandson with red hair, who loves soccer and plays outdoor or indoor soccer all year long. And, he likes his computer games, too!
Effie asked: Do you have any pets? Did you have pets as a kid? I have always had pets. My father liked English setters and he even raised a litter of puppies. My two favorite dogs as a kid were Zippy and Bessie, both were black and white setters. Now, I have one dog, Harley, who is a poodle and cocker spaniel mix, because somehow I became allergic to dogs and he is hypoallergenic. We also have four dwarf Nigerian goats.Mikayla asked: What are you looking forward to as superintendent? Are you excited?
I’m very excited and look forward to coming to work every day. I love what I do and I love education and making a difference. The best moments are the times like these when I get to meet with students and teachers and talk about what’s important. However, there is a lot of email and paperwork, and right now, I’m trying to learn the budget and meet with as many people as I can, so it’s try to try to do everything at once.
To answer Ashlyn's question, what's my favorite thing about being a superintendent?
So far, Ashlyn, meeting and working with people -- kids, teachers, volunteers, parents, community members. At the end of the day, I like to feel like I've made a difference.
Emily and Gwen’s questions work well together: What made you a superintendent and how many years have you been a superintendent?
To do back to my mother’s story, I was always curious and interested in every challenge and adventure. I always wanted to try the next thing and test myself. I was a good teacher in Suffield and East Granby, but I wanted to help other teachers and I became a department chair at the high school in Canton, which is very close to you, and I supervised nine teachers. Then, because of the volunteer committees and projects I was working on, I became interested in curriculum. I went to school and got my 092 license and became Canton’s first Curriculum Director and Assistant Superintendent. When I realized I wanted even more challenge and responsibility, I went back to school again and earned my 093 to become a superintendent. I was the superintendent in Orange for three years before coming to Litchfield. The main reason I took on all those changes is that I always wanted to try the next step.
Ava asked: What was your favorite things to teach in English?
I taught high school, so the books I loved may not be familiar to you. So many books, it’s hard to choose. I taught a lot of different courses in high school. I loved teaching a very complex books called Behind the Scenes in the Museum. Another one of my favorites was Ragtime, which is actually written off the beat, just like ragtime music is played. You know how when you are clapping to music, you usually clap with the beat? Well, ragtime music is syncopated or off-the beat, as if you were clapping exactly when everyone else wasn’t. Well, the author wrote the book off-beat. Just when you think you know what to expect, he does something else. I loved teaching about Romeo and Juliet, and how the problem was really that the kids could not communicate with their parents and went to their friends instead. I loved teaching The Bean Trees… so many books, but I’m sorry they aren’t books you know yet.
Jake asked an interesting question: What would your second choice for a job be other than a superintendent?
I would be a writer. I try to be a writer even now in my spare time. I write a lot of short stories; and have written three novels, but none of them is ready to be published. Someday, I’ll go back and finish what I started, but it takes more time than I have right now. When I retire, sometime in the future, I’ll finish one or all of the novels and send them out to a publisher to see what happens.
We were out of time, but here are a few of the questions I would have loved to answer:
Deanna wrote: What was your favorite subject in school when you were a kid? I loved everything about school; but I became an English teacher because I loved reading and writing. I was very good at science, but I didn’t really understand it.
Bella asked: Who inspired you? My parents did. My mother graduated first in her high school class, but never went to college because she had been raised to go to work. Her father worked in a factory and she became a waitress and then a secretary. One interesting thing about my mother is that she could play the piano extremely well. She could hear something and play it. When she was 10 or 11, she traded doing housework for her piano teacher in return for lessons. My mother also painted clock faces when we were kids. She was an outstanding artist. She and my father raised us to go to college. They also talked about politics and issues at the dinner table and expected us to be thinkers.
Ellen wrote: What were you like in elementary school? I tried to be very perfect and proper. If I made a mistake writing, I wouldn’t erase it. I would start over on another piece of paper. (We didn’t have computers.) I always wanted A’s on my report card and was upset if I didn’t get one in a subject. But, I was also a little clumsy and awkward. I sometimes did embarrassing things, such as falling off my chair or skinning my knees at recess. Sometimes I got in trouble for things that I thought were funny, but annoyed the teacher. One time I took a friend’s hat and hid it in my desk. The teacher thought I was stealing it and made me stand in the hall facing the wall, which was a common punishment in my school days.
Daniel wanted to know: Was it always your dream to be a superintendent? No, I wanted to be an airline stewardess. I romanticized that they were beautiful, adventurous women who traveled the world. My father said 'NO.' I was going to college and that was that.
To summarize a few other immediate concerns:
No, Tommy, I have no plans to make you wear uniforms. I went camping when I was a kid, Alex, but never as an adult. I would love for you to have more technology, Aiden and everyone else who asked the same question; so I’ll work on that issue with the staff and the Board.
Yes, I do have to work at home, Diana; and no, I have no real trick up my sleeve to being a good superintendent, Erin, other than listening to people and always remembering to do what is best for kids. Patrick, I have no immediate plans to decrease the amount of homework you get; but it is the kind of issue a district committee can study if enough people are interested. I do have some favorite memories, Madelyn, like the red house with a star inside; and I write about my memories all the time, so invite me to come to your class and I’ll share another one with you.
Thank you to the students and staff at Litchfield Intermediate for this opportunity to say hello,
