Did you know Seymour Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo keeps a basket of rubber duckies in her office?
Or that Prendergast School Principal Lawrence DiPalma had a helicopter land at the Ansonia school to help celebrate his retirement?
The details were dished during interviews with the educators, as they prepare to retire this year.
Mascolo and DiPalma are two of several administrators leaving Valley school districts this summer.
The Valley Indy recently sat down with five administrators to find out what they will miss most about working in Valley schools.
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Name: Lynn Bennett-Wallick
School: Ansonia Middle School, Ansonia
Job: Principal
Background: Worked as a biochemist at Yale. She has been a principal at Ansonia Middle School for 10 years, and has worked in the district for 28 years.
What’s Next: The district has not yet named a successor.
Lynn Bennett-Wallick left a job as a biochemist 28 years ago to became a science teacher in Ansonia. Now, after moving up the ranks to principal of Ansonia Middle School, Bennett-Wallick is retiring this summer.
During her years as principal, Bennett-Wallick said she has strongly focused on building a better learning environment for her students. Through the Connecticut Accountability for Learning Initiative she taught her staff new teaching skills. The challenge, she said, was “getting everybody in that boat rowing in the same direction.”
“You have kids in the classroom with so many different needs. It’s important to get to all of them,” she said.
Bennett-Wallick hopes to apply the skills she learned at Ansonia Middle School to her new job. She will be working part-time with the Connecticut Association of Schools, where she will travel to other school districts across the state to train principals.
“I decided that I brought everybody as far as I could here, and I needed to share a lot more that I have on a different level,” she said.
The staff decorated Bennett-Wallick’s office for her departure, and parents have sent flowers and cards. Students wrote her goodbye letters in their art classes.
“Some of them were so poignant and touching. I think I’ll treasure them forever,” Bennett-Wallick said.
Bennett-Wallick says she is looking forward to her new challenge, but she will miss the children.
“I love my staff, and I love the people who work here, but it’s all about the kids,” she said.
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Name: Lawrence DiPalma
School: Prendergast School, Ansonia
Job: Principal
Background: DiPalma has been working in education for 40 years. He spent 25 years as an administrator and 15 years as a teacher in public and private schools.
What’s Next: Joseph Apicella, the current assistant principal, will replace DiPalma as principal in the next school year.
DiPalma knows how to go out with a bang. DiPalma, 61, had a Black Hawk helicopter land in front of the Prendergast School as a celebration for his retirement, and as a thank you to the students and teachers.
DiPalma has spent the last five years of his career in the Ansonia school district — two years at Mead School and the last three as principal at Prendergast. He was named Connecticut’s Principal of the Year in 2011 and got the opportunity to visit Washington D.C. last fall to be a part of the National Distinguished Principals Class of 2011.
Looking back at his time at Prendergast, DiPalma recalled the challenge of redistricting, as well as initiatives he pushed at the school. One such initiative was a Dads Club created to provide a male influence at their children’s school aside from PTO meetings.
“We definitely have strong parent involvement,” said DiPalma.
The students are involved as well. Take first-grader Matteo Canu, who sometimes dresses up in a suit and tie in order to match DiPalma.
Matteo says he will miss DiPalma, and will still wear the getup even when DiPalma leaves, but “only on special occasions.”
“You never know the influence you have on children,” DiPalma said.
Next year, DiPalma will be working as a math teacher at Notre Dame High School in Fairfield. He plans to move to New York in the next few years to spend more time with his family.
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Name: Fran Gallo
School: Irving School, Derby
Job: Principal
Background: Began as an elementary and middle school teacher in Waterbury; became principal of Irving School in 2001.
What’s Next: Jennifer Olson was selected as the new principal of Irving School beginning this fall.
Gallo, 63, will be retiring this month, but he says he will always remember the special moments he shared with the students during his 11 years at Irving School.
In addition to his tasks as principal, Gallo helped organize science fairs, student of the month awards, and the annual International Night, where students are encouraged to represent their countries by performing native dances or songs, and sharing traditional food dishes. He and his staff also distribute Christmas presents and Thanksgiving dinner baskets to students during the holidays.
Gallo faced early challenges during his tenure — his biggest occurring only 13 days into his first year as principal. The day was September 11, 2001.
“I didn’t really know anybody,” Gallo said. “I had the benefit of knowing the teachers for about a month, but I didn’t really know a lot of the support staff, and I certainly didn’t know the kids or the parents.”
Gallo kept the students in school that day, and counselors offered to talk about the incident. “I think we all learned from it,” he said.
The first thing on Gallo’s retirement to-do list: home improvement. He and his wife also plan to spend more time with their grandchild.
Students and parents have shown their appreciation for Gallo through cards, drawings, and other homemade gifts.
“The hard part is leaving the kids. Any principal or departing teacher will tell you the kids make it special,” said Gallo. “I’d like to think I did my job and that I did it well, and that they appreciate that.
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Name: Robert Lisi
School: Ansonia High School, Ansonia
Job: Interim Principal
Background: Has spent 37 years in education, and 38 years as the Ansonia High School football coach. During the last 17 years, he was Assistant Principal at Ansonia High School.
What’s Next: The new principal of Ansonia High School has not yet been selected.
Lisi, 59, became the interim principal at Ansonia High School in January 2012, when the former principal left due to medical reasons.
Lisi said he was ready to retire.
“This year, it’s my choice. I want to be able to make that decision. It’s a good time for me to personally step back from education,” Lisi said.
But Lisi does not plan on splitting from the educational community completely.
He will continue coaching the state championship Ansonia High School football team.
After graduation practice, the seniors gathered in the auditorium to watch a farewell video, containing many pictures of Lisi with his students in the halls, at prom, and throughout the school building.
The one thing Lisi will never forget is how he impacted the lives of his students.
“I know now that I’ve impacted the lives of my students. I don’t know what’s better than that. I don’t how many other professions there are where you can impact the life of a someone else, you can help them make the right choices in life,” he said.
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Name: MaryAnne Mascolo
School: Seymour Public Schools
Job: Superintendent
Background: She has spent 33 years in education, the last five working as superintendent. Prior to that, she worked as a special education and history teacher, a guidance counselor and assistant principal.
What’s Next: Christine Syriac, the assistant superintendent, will be the new superintendent in the fall.
MaryAnne Mascolo notified the Seymour Board of Education more than a year and a half ago that she would be retiring at the end of the 2011-2012 school year.
She was taking a cue from her favorite book: “From Good to Great” by Jim Collins.
“You need to do good succession planning,” Mascolo, 55, said, referring to the book.
Mascolo decided to step down as superintendent for family reasons, and described retiring as “terrifying and exciting at the same time.”
She wants to take the next six months to focus on her health and take up some hobbies, including quilting and possibly going back to law school.
Mascolo says her most rewarding moment was working with the Seymour schools during the past seven years to develop a full-day kindergarten program. This project became her mission.
“You have to be tenacious,” she said. “You can’t let go of an idea.”
Mascolo is also setting up a $500 scholarship this year for a senior at Seymour High School going into the field of education.
While many will remember her for these initiatives, the daycare located in the same building as the Seymour Board of Education will always remember her as “the duck lady.”
A few years ago, Mascolo began giving small rubber ducks to the children attending the The Village Strawberry Patch daycare center.
“Then, it sort of expanded,” she said.
She now has a collection of rubber ducks for all occasions: Halloween ducks, George Washington ducks, princess ducks, doctor ducks. When children come to the office, she lets them take as many as they like.
“The kids downstairs think I have a duck making machine,” Mascolo said.
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Name: Stephen Tracy
School: Derby Public Schools
Job: Superintendent
Background: Tracy came to Derby in 2008. Tracy previously was the Superintendent in New Milford, the assistant superintendent in Farmington. He also worked as Vice President for Edison Schools, Inc. serving as general manager for Edison schools in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Michigan and Delaware.
What’s Next: The Derby Board of Education has not yet named a successor.
Derby Superintendent Stephen Tracy is leaving the district at the end of June become the superintendent of Unified District No. 2, which is responsible for the education of students in foster and residential care in Connecticut.
Under Tracy’s watch, Derby opened a new middle school and saw new administrators at the Bradley School and the high school. The high school also saw its accreditation remain intact during Tracy’s time as superintendent.
In addition, the school district started paying closer attention to data in an effort to track how students are doing in the district.
Click here to read a Q&A the Valley Indy conducted with Tracy when he announced his departure.
In it, Tracy gave advice to his replacement:
“My no. 1 advice would be to focus on children and families. Do as much as you can to understand their expectations and needs. Your job is also to persuade the town to provide the financial resources. You have to also support the staff and look after them,” Tracy said.
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Cathy Goodrich, principal of Seymour High School, also will be retiring at the end of the school year.
She did not return requests for an interview.
Goodrich worked as assistant principal from 2002 to 2006, and has been principal since 2006, according to an article in the New Haven Register.