Many professionals, especially people who excel in their field, stick around too long -Central Lincoln County School System Supt. Robert Bouchard, who clocked in for the last time June 24, is an example of the opposite – a leader departing at the peak of his career.
Bouchard, 59, of Walpole, is Maine’s reigning superintendent of the year, a distinction awarded by his peers, including former superintendents of the year and members of the Maine School Superintendents Association.
The veteran administrator, who came to then-Union 74 in 2001, announced his intention to retire in November 2010, less than a month after receiving the award.
Born in Rochester, N.H., Bouchard grew up in East Millinocket. He earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at the University of Maine at Orono (UMO) and taught for several years.
“During the time I was teaching, the principal of the school gave me a lot of opportunities in leadership roles,” Bouchard said. “I said, ‘You know, I like doing this. I think I can do it and I think I enjoy it.'”
Bouchard returned to UMO, ultimately graduating with a master’s degree in educational leadership.
Bouchard became the principal of a Medway school and got his first superintendent’s position at Union 113, which includes Medway, East Millinocket and Woodville.
In early 2001, with his son in college, his daughter about to graduate high school and the towns of Union 113 facing grave economic conditions, Bouchard began contemplating a move.
As a child, Bouchard camped in the Midcoast and remembered the experience fondly. When the superintendent post at Union 74 opened up, “I knew this was a place I wanted to be so I applied for it,” he said.
In his early years with the district, Bouchard made great strides to improve Union 74’s formerly turbulent relationship with Lincoln Academy, developing a personal relationship with the late Howard Ryder, Lincoln Academy’s former head of school.
“He’s a strong student advocate,” Lincoln Academy Head of School Jay Pinkerton said. “Bob was very supportive of Lincoln Academy and the students.”
Bouchard “found ways to help us expand our alternative program by providing some additional funds,” Pinkerton said.
Years later, Bouchard guided the transition from Union 74 to AOS 93. In 2009, Union 74, facing a legislative mandate, began planning for consolidation. “That was a big challenge,” Bouchard said.
Attempts to form a district with Boothbay region towns fell apart. Ultimately, Union 74 brought Jefferson into the fold, forming the Central Lincoln County School System, also known as AOS 93.
The end result, after “a lot of compromise,” was “a good solution,” Bouchard said.
The seven towns of AOS 93 “trust each other and really work together in a unified way,” Bouchard said. “That makes me very happy.”
“One of the good things the AOS did was allow us to unify the curriculum,” Bouchard said, a “work in progress” overseen by district Curriculum Coordinator Sharon Marchi. “That was a great impetus for us to get all the schools on the same page,” Bouchard said.
Pinkerton, too, is a big fan of the change in curriculum. “It’s important that everybody thinks K-12,” he said. The consolidation brought about a common calendar, common curriculum standards and common goals, all of which help students prepare for Lincoln Academy, and helps Lincoln Academy prepare for the incoming students.
“As the receiving high school, that’s very important work,” Pinkerton said.
AOS 93 presents a unique challenge in its sheer number of school boards. Bouchard meets regularly with committees from the district’s seven towns, the Great Salt Bay School Committee and the AOS 93 Board. During the late winter and spring, as each community evaluates the coming year’s budget with a sharp eye to the economy, Bouchard also meets with selectmen and municipal budget committees.
Each community and each committee has a distinct dynamic and a set of unique personalities. It’s part of Bouchard’s job to adjust to the changing needs and expectations of each town.
If the string of public tributes from municipal officials in recent months is any indication, Bouchard met this test with ease.
Pinkerton works with a single board at Lincoln Academy and marveled at Bouchard’s ability to juggle a full schedule of meetings with his daily responsibilities, all with his customary poise.
“I don’t know how he did it,” Pinkerton said.
Testimonials aside, Bouchard’s record as an administrator speaks for itself. The district’s success stories include Great Salt Bay Community School, which the Maine Education Policy Research Institute recently chose to participate in a study of high-performing public schools, and tiny South Bristol School, which routinely outperforms Great Salt Bay Community School in average test scores, driving a friendly rivalry between the schools’ respective principals.
Bouchard is humble about this success, delegating credit to all in sight – the dozens of volunteers who serve on municipal school committees, the central office staff and the administrators, faculty and staff of the district’s five schools.
The system relies on the “commitment” of district employees and the support of each community, Bouchard said. “Success breeds success and they come to expect they’ll do well. If they don’t do well, they’re trying to figure out why and they’re trying to fix that.”
“One of my former superintendents always told me to ‘Hire people that are smarter than you and just keep great people around. That’s the key to success.’ I never forgot that,” Bouchard said.
AOS 93 employees enthusiastically return Bouchard’s gratitude and respect.
South Bristol School Principal Scott White called Bouchard a good leader, a good friend and a good mentor.
“He has led a very good administrative team through some difficult changes,” White said, including the transition to the AOS and the “mutually beneficial” addition of Jefferson.
White has worked with “over a dozen” superintendents in his 20-plus years in education. “[Bouchard’s] leadership style is unique,” he said.
Bouchard possesses a rare ability to relate to and connect with people “from a lot of different backgrounds” and a knack for developing trust, White said.
“After meeting Bob for five minutes, you can immediately” sense the man’s integrity and be “willing to go to bat for him anytime,” White said. “Bob will be sorely missed.”
Bristol Consolidated School Principal Jennifer Ribeiro first came to AOS 93 17 years ago as a teacher at Great Salt Bay Community School. Bouchard was a mentor as she made the switch to educational administration, first as the district curriculum coordinator, later as Bristol’s principal.
Ribeiro described Bouchard as a thoughtful, kind and patient man, “a very good listener” and a shrewd administrator who chose his battles carefully. “He didn’t meddle unless he had to and I think people appreciated that,” she said.
Only in the abstract – describing the qualities of a theoretical “great” superintendent, does Bouchard himself explain what he does that works so well.
“I think a good superintendent is a good leader, a good communicator, knowledgeable about education but also about school finance,” Bouchard said. “A good superintendent knows how to make reasonable goals and how to achieve them and knows when to compromise and when not to.”
Incoming Supt. Steve Bailey has an enthusiastic vote of confidence from his predecessor. “I think they’ve hired an excellent superintendent,” Bouchard said.
Bouchard and Bailey’s relationship dates to Bouchard’s early teaching days, 37 years ago, when the young men coached opposing junior high basketball squads.
“[Bailey] knows his stuff,” Bouchard said. “He’s really strong in curriculum. I think he’ll do a great job here.”
Bouchard has no immediate plans to leave the area. His wife, Joan, a teacher at Boothbay Region Elementary School, is not retiring, although the couple anticipates spending more time at their Bonita Springs, Fla. condominium.
“My wife and I are taking off for a month and we’re just going to kind of disengage and just breathe for a while,” Bouchard said.
“We love it here,” Bouchard said. The couple appreciates the natural beauty of their home as well as the people. “We’ve met a lot of interesting folks with different backgrounds.”
A reader of biographies, history and other non-fiction, Bouchard wants to read more and “not just in the 20 minutes before I fall dead asleep at night.”
A former, although, by his own admission, a “terrible” golfer, Bouchard plans a return to the links. He enjoys fishing, too, although his reputation as a sportsman is shaky.
In 2001, when Union 74 representatives traveled to East Millinocket during the hiring process, they met with a group of Bouchard’s Union 113 colleagues.
“Whether the people in the room really liked me or just wanted to see me go, they made a lot of nice comments about me,” Bouchard said, leading Union 74 Chairman F. Parker Renelt (who continues to chair AOS 93) to ask “isn’t there something negative you can say about him?”
“Somebody piped up: ‘He’s a terrible fisherman – the worst ever,'” Bouchard said.
Bouchard didn’t rule out an eventual return to professional life. “I may pop up somewhere else,” he said, although “it would be in a reduced role.”
Whatever work Bouchard undertakes, professional, volunteer, or otherwise, “I want to enjoy it,” he said.
For now, with retirement hours away, Bouchard admits “a little twinge of trepidation” for “about five minutes of every day.”
“Most of the time, I’m really looking forward to it.”
