Font ResizeGROTON -- It was a time for goodbyes at last Tuesday night's meeting of the Groton-Dunstable Regional School Committee as members bid an official farewell to a pair of longtime teachers and the district's departing superintendent.
Retiring teachers included Christine Robinson after 13 years of service and Nicki Rockwell after 14 years.
The latter, in particular, made her mark in the last years of her employment with her involvement in one of the district's most prominent student projects: collecting a million pennies helping to illustrate in stark terms the extent of the Nazi Holocaust.
The project was an outgrowth of the Groton-Dunstable Regional Middle School's unit on the Holocaust, in which students conducted projects involving the collection of a million objects, such as kernels of popcorn, grains of rice, or even Skittles, representing only a portion of the millions of people killed over the course of World War II.
For their project, a number of Rockwell's eighth-graders chose to collect pennies and began doing so in 2005, vowing to continue no matter how long it took. With starts and stops, including a theft of a portion of the pennies collected, and then a final avalanche of donations, 1.5 million pennies were finally collected and put on display in a specially built plexiglass container.
The teachers as well as Superintendent Joseph Mastrocola were recognized by state Rep. Sheila Harrington, who appeared at the committee's meeting of
"Joseph Mastrocola has made an impression (at Groton-Dunstable) that no one will soon forget," noted Harrington in presenting the citation to the superintendent.
School Committee member Berta Erickson said working with Mastrocola, who turned around the district's financial situation under difficult economic conditions, was a "learning experience for me."
"Joseph Mastrocola has been the best all-around superintendent that I've seen for a long time," concluded Erickson.
"I had a very constructive working relationship with him," added James Frey, who served as committee chairman when Mastrocola was hired and during the two years he was superintendent.
Mastrocola's final day on the job will be June 29, after which he reports for work at his next assignment as superintendent in the Peabody school system.
Also last Tuesday night, the School Committee was briefed on the doings of the Special Education Parent Advisory Council over the past year and what the organization was planning for the next.
According to SEPAC Chairwoman Gail Glatiotis, this year the organization made improvements and additions to its parent resource area located in the Prescott School building, hosted lectures and conducted workshops.
Next year will include more of the same as well as more concentration on parent/district communication, recruitment, educational outreach and improved representation of the interests of special-needs students.
Next year's most innovative feature will be a "Walk With Me" support group at which parents will be invited to walk with SEPAC members along a local stretch of the rail trail to enjoy the outdoors, get to know one another and discuss issues related to special education in an informal atmosphere.
Last Tuesday night, School Committee members also:
* Were informed by Erickson that deliberations will begin soon on one of the earliest revenue enhancing ideas to come out of the committee's think tank -- establishment of an alumni association. "I think we're going to be successful," an optimistic Erickson told fellow committee members. "But I think it's going to be a long process."
* Voted to approve a pair of memorandum of agreements with the union representing the district's office staff granting them a .20 per hour raise retroactive to June 2011, a 0 percent increase in 2012, and a 1 percent increase in both 2013 and 2014.
* Voted to approve a one-year contract with Anthony Bent, who will take over from Mastrocola as interim superintendent beginning on July 1. Currently an education consultant for the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, Bent spent 15 years as superintendent for the town of Shrewsbury and has served in the capacity of interim superintendent in Leominster and Topsfield.
