3 key staff retire from Newburyport Public Universities | Regional Information

NEWBURYPORT — With three district leaders retiring this month, the College Committee and Superintendent Sean Gallagher took a moment final week to recognize the contributions these crucial players manufactured to the city’s educational institutions about the a long time.

Assistant Superintendent Angela Bik and Nancy Lysik, director of finance and human means, are both retiring following 32 years, and Cathy Riccio, the district director of nursing and wellness services, is retiring soon after 9 several years. 

College Committee member Steven Cole spoke on behalf of his colleagues at their meeting June 21, saying “all three of these industry experts contributed to my and the Faculty Committee’s potential to make educated decisions in the most effective desire of our school district and for all people whom we serve.

“While the roles in which they executed range, I believe that every deemed it an honor and privilege to pursue their respective vocations within the Newburyport faculty district,” he included. “All were being able to nurture their passions even though accomplishing their position and undertaking it very well.”

He thanked all a few on behalf of the district’s learners, people, faculty, staff members and administrators. 

“I’ve normally believed that it was a sign of a very good system when people sort of expand in your program and take on a lot more and extra responsibilities,” University Committee member Bruce Menin reported, noting that Bik has done just that in her three decades with the district. 

Bik began as a Title I instructor in 1989, assisting pupils in Grades 5-8 with literacy and math. She then grew to become a center school instructor and taught science.

“I fell in like with training the very first time I noticed 1 of my learners impressed,” Bik explained in a statement right after the meeting. “There is a pleasure in teaching like no other.”

As a staff trainer, she specially noticed power in “the electrical power of collaboration” and the capacity to bounce suggestions off other lecturers. This group solution was “the basis for my future” and a little something she incorporated during her career.

As a trainer at the center faculty, Bik also pursued a master’s degree in curriculum and technology because she saw technological know-how as “a way to enhance experiential finding out for pupils as perfectly as instructors.”

She submitted a proposal for technologies integration and the principal liked it so much that he employed her as the school’s curriculum coordinator and technological innovation integration specialist — her initial administrative purpose. 

Bik went on to turn into the district’s director of curriculum, serving also as the director of Title I, the place she received her begin. 

In 2011, she turned assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and experienced the prospect to help others obtain new paths in education and learning.  

“My intention has constantly remained the same — to have a positive impact on the discovering knowledge of our college students,” Bik mentioned. “I have learned that it seriously is all about the relationships, even the difficult kinds. None of us know achievements by itself. I am proud of all that we have achieved.”

The retiring assistant superintendent is grateful to all those she had the chance to work with above the many years, which includes her administrative assistant, Nancy Tancreti.

“It has been a comprehensive and gratifying job that has taken me in instructions I had never imagined,” Bik reported. “I have been educated as very well as remaining the educator, and my capability to see all sides of a predicament has been crucial to my currently being an effective administrator and problem solver.”

Lysik, who has also invested a few many years in the district, has been the go-to particular person for all questions similar to business enterprise and the price range. 

“What I have discovered extraordinary about doing the job with Nancy is the unconditional respect she has amongst most people in this district,” Menin mentioned, noting that her expertise has moved the district forward with union bargaining and aided some others fully grasp how financing in faculties even will work. 

Riccio, who was named School Nurse Administrator of the Year by the Massachusetts University Nurse Organization earlier this calendar year, has utilised her enthusiasm for public health and fitness to connect with college students in various ways around the several years.

For the earlier 12 months and a 50 %, she has been a member of the professional medical advisory staff, guiding the district by the numerous unknowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that, she led instructional initiatives on topics such as vaping and compound abuse. 

“I believe the accomplishment that we have skilled as a district in excess of the past number of yrs has been instantly a outcome of their initiatives, their input and their consultations,” Superintendent Sean Gallagher reported of all three ladies.

“For men and women that have experienced an extraordinary profession like they have, you don’t swap an Angela Bik, a Nancy Lysik, a Cathy Riccio,” the superintendent mentioned. “The only hope that we can do is build on the legacy that they are leaving guiding.”

The district has employed LisaMarie Ippolito as assistant superintendent, Philip Littlehale as organization supervisor and Lauren McDonald as district director of nursing and well being solutions, all formally starting Thursday.