After 13 years working in Seymour schools, including the last five as superintendent, Christine Syriac will retire at the end of this school year.
Syriac said Thursday said she loves her job, but decided it was the right time to retire.
“I’m still very happy in the work I do and very happy in education,” she said. “My husband and I want to spend some time traveling.”
She announced her plans at a school board meeting Monday.
Syriac was hired as superintendent in 2011. Prior to that she was associate superintendent.
In Seymour, town residents approve town and school budgets — and the electorate isn’t keen on tax increases.
In fact, in 2010, voters rejected a budget that carried a zero percent increase in spending.
But during Syriac’s tenure the school board and administrators have worked hard to bring the public into the budget process more.
Example — the school district created a “citizens academy,” an effort to get people familiar with the school system.
The school board also hosted live budget webinars online in an effort to explain how they were spending money.
Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller praised Syriac for her transparency and diplomacy.
“She understood the importance of the town and the board of education working together, so she’s been an excellent partner over the last five years as we’ve started to merge some of these different programs, some of these different activities together,” Miller said, referring in part to technology services shared with the town.
Syriac said the fight for adequate funding is compounded by the state not allocating enough funds to communities such as Seymour.
But school leaders can’t just turn around and expect the town’s residents to make up the difference.
“We really tried to be respective of the townspeople,” she said. “I work very closely with the (school) board and the town. I have presented what I feel have been very reasonable budgets that still permit the district to move forward. For the most part those budgets were supported.”
Seymour Board of Education Chairman Yashu Putorti said in an email that Syriac is extremely knowledgable and easy to work with.
He noted the graduation rate is 94 percent at Seymour High School — a 10-year high. The chairman said that Syriac did a great job with limited resources.
“Christine has been an excellent superintendent. Most people say she is very approachable. They are very comfortable meeting with her and talking to her,” Putorti said. “She listens honestly to everyone’s concerns. She has done a very good job managing our district and providing good education for our children. She has a genuine care for the children in our district and her staff.”
Syriac said she worked to involve students’ families more in the learning process.
“I think the thing for me that we really focused on is in regard to student learning, student engagement,” Syriac said. “My motto has always been ‘It’s always about student learning, period.’ That’s what we let guide any decision that we make.”
Student attendance rates are up. So is the district’s number of course offerings. Graduation rates have risen for the past three straight years. The high school was also just reaccredited without any “warning status” items.
“That hasn’t happened in a very long time,” Syriac said.
The superintendent credited hardworking teachers and staff for improving the district.
Getting adequate funding for the school district will be one of her successor’s biggest challenges, Syriac said — particularly if enrollment declines, as trends indicate it will.
The next superintendent should also be positioned to adapt to changing paradigms within the teaching field, she said.
“There’s a real push to move toward more personalized instruction in education, and that is just a vast instructional shift for our teachers,” Syriac said. “The next leader has to be somebody capable of moving education in that direction.”
Miller, the First Selectman, called Syriac a kid-focused superintendent and an exceptional leader.
Her replacement will have big shoes to fill.
“But (when) you work that hard and you get to the level that she is at, you certainly earn your retirement,” Miller said. “I’ll be sad to see her go.”
Putorti said no replacements have been named.
“The BOE needs to meet ASAP to determine our next step,” he said. “We have two choices: do the work ourselves (by posting) the job and interviewing candidates, or hire a search firm to find candidates for us to interview.”
