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OSSINING, N.Y. – Superintendent of Schools Phyllis Glassman has announced plans to retire in mid-January, capping a career of more than 20 years with the Ossining School District.
“This was a very, very challenging life decision for me,” Glassman said Tuesday. “I know this decision is going to come as a surprise for many and it was a very difficult one for me to make. I will always be a supporter and a cheerleader for Ossining and I will be taking Ossining pride with me wherever I go.”
When she steps down in January, Glassman will have served as Ossining School District superintendent for six years. She took over in 2007, replacing former superintendent Robert Roelle. Before that, Glassman served in a variety of roles in the district, including assistant superintendent of instruction and deputy superintendent.
Glassman said Tuesday it would be difficult to pinpoint one thing that led to her decision, but that she was very proud of the time she has served.
“There was not one single factor that led to this,” she said. “It was just looking back at a wonderful career and working with so many great people. There wasn’t any one thing that led to the decision. It was a collective series of decisions that got me here.”
Many in the community say Glassman is known for her planning skills, but when it comes to her life after retirement, Glassman says she is at a loss.
“I feel like I’ve planned extremely well for the district. However, I always leave myself last and I have not made plans for myself,” Glassman said, adding that she has no plans to leave Ossining. “I think I have a lot of soul-searching to do. I want to make sure I do an outstanding job from here until mid-January, and then I’ll look at my own plans.”
Bill Kress, president of the Ossining Board of Education, said Tuesday that Glassman's departure will be a “tremendous loss” for the district.
“The national average nowadays for a superintendent is around two or three years, and she’ll have been with us for six,” Kress said. “She’s extremely dedicated to this community. I know she did not make this decision easily. It was a very hard decision for her because she’s extremely dedicated to the students, staff and the whole community.”
Kress said the board has not discussed plans to hire a new superintendent, but added that it would be difficult to find a replacement who could match Glassman’s dedication. Kress later added that he expects the board to “discuss next steps” within the next three weeks.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find someone with more dedication, or even another superintendent whose car is parked in front of the building on Saturday and Sunday on a regular basis,” Kress said. “She’s not only been here for way longer than an average tenure, but she’s worked harder during her tenure than I think any other superintendent. We are lucky to have had her and lucky to have her through January.”
Comments (4)
Congratulations to "Homebound Senior" (HS) on his past scholastic and other achievements and pride in having attended Catholic schools. Generally speaking parochial schools are smaller, autocratically run, can pick and choose their students and dismiss those who are not meeting their religious and academic standards. These standards and conditions were and are not available to public schools who by law must take everyone in, cannot freely eject their students in an unfettered manner and are subject to policies made by locally elected boards of education and the mandates of the state and federal governments. It was also fortunate indeed that HS' parents were also able to scrape up the money for uniforms, books and supplies to these private school of choice required. In summary Homebound Senior is making an an unfair comparison.
Frankly I don't know that the average Catholic School student knows the dates and other details of various U.S. Supreme decisons anymore than does the average public school studentsdoes so I will take HS' word for it. Perhaps we have a Supreme Court Case contest that pits average parochial school students against average public school students to find out which of thes classes of students know more about this arcane subject. I do know however, that the case that he refers to, Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.,is no longer law and that in quite a number of subsequent cases, the Supreme Court declared and affirmed the constitutionality of the federal income tax numerous times since then. Nonetheless there are many tax evadesr posing as constitutional and law experts who argue otherwise. No doubt that proportionately. the average number of these legal quacks who went to Catholic Schools and those who went to public schools is equal.
"Are parochial schools better?" has been the ping pong ball of education policy. Yes, because there is discipline. No, because parochial schools can select, either directly or indirectly through tuition. My sense is that they might be and not be. The ability of students is the dominate factor in education. One can only be so good as a teacher if one knows and covers the material in the syllabus. The same is true for stock advisers and doctors.
I attended Jefferson High School in the late 1950's. The school staff was frustrated in having no or few Regents scholarships year after year. The catchment for the school was predominantly Italian American who made use of the excellent parochial schools in Rochester.
Strangely, my class of 284 graduates got a bunch of Regents' scholarship and produced a doctor, a lawyer who is now a distinguished judge, a PhD physicist, a mathematician/actuary (me), and several other PhDs.
I am a big fan of Dr. Glassman, and I wish her the very best in whatever she does.
I thank God every day that my father insisted that I attend parochial school. When I see the students nowadays, they can't add two figures in their head without using a calculator (my father, God rest his soul, working at the old A&P on Broad Avenue, could take a crayon and paperbag, list 15 or 20 items' prices and come up with the correct sum everytime.
How many of our current US Supreme Court Justices can an average OHS student name? Could an OHS student tell you the ruling on Plessy v. Ferguson? Or in what year the US Supreme Court deemed income tax unconstitutional?
But, they certainly can tell you what's going on with Kim Kardashian or that Jersey Shore girl.
Thank you, Dad. I excelled in Catholic school and beyond. Sadly my parents were not alive to see me achieve an honor I never thought I would receive - induction into 'Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges,' which honors the top 10% of college graduates.
Wow, so which parochial school in the area is ranked as one of the top schools in the country for science? and Music Education? Which one in the area has Best Girls basketball team in the county? How many of those parochial schools also offer SUNY courses, not just AP. What about their Drama Programs, How many won 3 Metro awards this year? Oh and I'm sure there are a bunch winning the MSG Varsity school spirit award right? Our seniors go on to some of the most prestigious college programs in the country, succeed, and go on to be Doctors, Lawyers, Heck, The Daliy Ossining posted just a few months ago about some recent OHS grads being recognized for their current work as scientists.
Homebound, People like you are bringing this town down. My OHS student has no clue what is going on in most TV programs because we don't have cable. If you are truly Homebound, how many of these students are you actually having conversations with? Get out of the house and come see what the students are actually achieving. You might be amazed. I'll quiz you now, Can you tell me about the Development and Function of Extrathymic T-Cells in Athymic Bone Marrow Transplantation Recipients? how about how Ecat11 Plays a Role in the Epigenetic Regulation of Retrotransposons? I'll help you out, stop by the OHS science department, they'll tell you all about it.