Dryden superintendent search narrows down to two

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

 

After a search that started with 17 applicants, the Dryden Central School District superintendent search has been whittled down to two final candidates. At a public meeting on Monday, April 30, both candidates were given an opportunity to introduce themselves to the community and take assorted questions. They had already met with the Board of Education and several other community stakeholders, including administration and students.

Both of the final candidates have strong local ties to the area. Elizabeth Coyle is currently the Chief Academic Officer for the Ithaca City School District. She has worked in education for nearly 30 years in a variety of positions including second-grade teacher, second and third-grade inclusion teacher, and a communications skills specialist focusing on reading and writing. During the April 30 question session, Coyle told the community that one of the reasons she applied for the superintendent position in Dryden was because she wants to continue growing in her career and challenging herself, but that Dr. Luvelle Brown, superintendent of ICSD, wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. She has experience overseeing an approximately $2.5 million budget, and grant writing.

The second candidate is Joshua Bacigalupi, a familiar name to the Dryden area. Bacigalupi is currently the principal of Alton B. Parker Elementary School in the Cortland Enlarged City School District, but in 2015 he held the position of principal of Dryden Elementary School for about a year. For Bacigalupi, coming back to Dryden was like coming back home. He has worked in education for 20 years, starting his career as a second and third-grade teacher in Virginia before spending time teaching in Bogota, Colombia. For several years Bacigalupi took a leave from teaching when he served in the United States Army National Guard and was deployed to Afghanistan. As he told the community in last week’s meeting, he has taken his skills from the army into teaching, and his skills from teaching into the army.

Among the wide-ranging questions the candidates received from the community were topics of discipline, the arts, what the first 30 days of being superintendent would look like, the role that the community would play in the school and with the students, how they would address a pattern of failing classes, and how they would support students who don’t have the support at home necessary to get a strong education.

When asked how she would support students who are not receiving support at home, Coyle said she would look for the support that is already available at the school or in the community and leverage that as much as possible. Start by taking students where they are, and work on communicating with families to learn what they need. Bacigalupi wanted to challenge what the idea of parent engagement looked like and set up low-risk events that didn’t ask a lot of the parents where they could begin a discussion about what they and their student need.

 

The arts are an important and engaging part of education for both Coyle and Bacigalupi, just as much as sports or other extracurriculars. For both candidates, the first 30 days of their tenure as superintendent were they to be chosen would be about engaging with the community, asking questions, finding out what programs are already in place, and exploring what else the community needs. This is the same approach both candidates would take to supporting teachers and staff, by first listening to what they need to feel supported. Both candidates also agreed that the community would play a large role in the school, and with students. Community resources and professionals would be instrumental in helping students learn and grow both inside and outside of the community.

Margie Malepe, president of the board of education, said the search started with a strong pool of applicants but after six were invited to interview the final two really rose to the top.

“I think we’re in an excellent place, we’ve got two very strong candidates and the tough part really now is going to be making a decision,” Malepe said.

A final decision could come as early as the middle to end of this week, Malepe said.

“Now what we’re doing is reviewing our own notes, of course, from the board interview,” Malepe said. “But, we’re also looking at the feedback that we’re receiving from everyone else that was involved and there’s a lot of it. So, we really wanted this to be an open process. We wanted it to be inclusive and transparent.”

Both candidates have extensive and varied experiences, which Malepe said were qualities that really stood out to the board. Both candidates have dispositions that Malepe said were appealing to the board.

“We have a lot to do right now in Dryden,” she said. “We’re a Focus district, our enrollment is down – enrollment is down all over the state – we want to develop a better sense of community, we want to improve communication, and this goes across the board.”

The next superintendent will have a lot to get started on in the Dryden Central School District, Malepe said.