School Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo has announced that she will retire at the end of the next school year.
Mascolo told members of the Board of Education during their meeting Monday night. By Tuesday morning, she was emailing a letter to staff in the schools telling of her decision to step down, effective June 2012.
“My decision to retire is based on my desire to spend long overdue time with my loved ones,” Mascolo said in the letter.
“Over the past nine years, I have had the honor of working with many Board members who believe the same as I do — that our first responsibility is to the children of Seymour,” she wrote.
A copy of the superintendent’s letter is posted below. The article continues after the document. Click the link for a larger view.
The announcement was a surprise, said Ed Strumello, chairman of the school board.
Mascolo will be missed, said Jeanne Loda, a member of the board.
“I think she’s done a fabulous job, she’ll be missed. I think the system is losing an incredible leader,” Loda said.
The district has nearly a year and a half to find a replacement.
The school board will have to meet to decide which way to proceed, such as whether to hire a consultant to help with the process of finding a new school leader.
“There are so many ways people go about doing it, from search committees and focus groups, people do everything,” Strumello said.
Mascolo is paid $164,360 in salary and other compensation. Her contract began April 1, 2007 and would have expired June 30, 2013.
The last few budget cycles have been difficult for the school district.
The district hasn’t received an increase in its budget in two years. Last year it took four votes to get a budget approved. Voters even rejected budget that had a zero-percent increase.
Bruce Baker, a longtime member of the school board and its former chairman, said Mascolo will be remembered for improving the schools.
“If I had to say anything about MaryAnne I would say when her tenure is objectively examined, people will be extremely pleased with the school district’s accomplishments. She is driven to improve our schools as our students face the demands of the 21st century,” Baker said.
He noted Mascolo still has work to do.
“She has worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day, and probably will for the next 16 months. She has done amazing things for our school district. She is a big driver on getting us to go to a full-day kindergarten. She and the high school staff did a terrific job improving the high school. You can see her mark throughout the district. We’re going to miss her, that’s for sure,” he said.
TEST SCORES: Reading Gains, Middle School Losses
The most recent test score data in the district shows improvements in reading scores for all “matched cohort” groups in the district. A “matched cohort” is a group of specific students tracked over time.
School officials, at the time the data was released, attributed the gains to increased focus on reading curriculum in the schools.
Writing and math test scores weren’t as strong.
A review of the data shows that younger students appear to be doing better each year, but the seventh and eighth grade students are actually doing worse over time.
In 2007, 86.5 percent of the fourth grade class met the goal level on writing tests. By 2010, only 60.6 percent of those same students as seventh graders met the goal level in writing.
For 2010 eighth graders, 8.3 percent fewer students met that goal level as did in 2006.
Click here to read an in-depth story about the most recent test score data.
