Onward and Upward

Come the start of the school year in the fall, the Stafford public school system will have a new superintendent and she may look familiar.

Patricia Collin, the Pupil Services Director of the Somers Public School system, will be leaving her hometown to take the position next door. She will be replacing Dr. Therese Fishman who is retiring.

“I’m really excited,” Collin said. “I felt that this was an opportunity to move forward in my career. I really am excited about beginning this next phase of my career. It will be bittersweet, but I see it as an opportunity for growth. I really am excited about applying my skill set to other forums and working with the community at large in addition to my experiences that I’ve had here in Somers.”

It will be a bittersweet move for Collin because she is from Somers and has been in the Somers school system for the last 27 years. She said that she has had well wishers, has been given thank you notes and other sentiments, and has been told she will be missed.

“I’m sure that Somers is going to hire a very competent, qualified person to assume this role and growth will continue to happen,” she said.

said that Collin, who received her Doctor of Educational Leadership degree from the University of Hartford in 2009, has been a terrific staff member in the Somers public schools and that everyone is extremely proud of her achieving this personal and professional goal that she has set out for herself.

“We know that Pat will do a wonderful job and will bring a new energy level to the Stafford public schools,” he said. “Certainly we’re going to miss her in town. She’s been a really dedicated, hard working employee and has done a terrific job as Director of Pupil Services. We know that she will be a success, equally as she has been here, as she moves into her new job in Stafford. We wish her well.”

Collin, who was born and raised in Somers, graduated as valedictorian from in 1978.

After graduation, she went to the University of Hartford where in 1982 she received her Bachelor of Science in special education and elementary education. In 1987, she received her Master of Education from the University of Connecticut. In 1999, she returned to the University of Hartford for her Sixth Year Degree in administration and supervision.

In 2000, Collin applied for and got her current position, which started as Coordinator of Special Education.

“One of the reasons that it interested me was that I was a mom of young children and I wanted to be able to still spend that time – summertime and vacation – with my children because my family was important to me, as well as my career,” she said. “After one year though, that position was eliminated and the board created a Director of Pupil Services position that was a 12-month position. I was assigned that role and I’ve served that ever since.”

Her first year teaching, Collin was in Suffield as a long-term sub in the primary grades. Then in 1983, Collin applied for a position in Somers and has been in Somers ever since.

“This is really where I’ve spent much of my life, in this area, this region,” she said.

Having grown up in Somers and spent most of her career there, she is very familiar with her neighbors in Stafford.

“It’s really a community with which I’m fairly familiar,” she said. “That also was appealing for me when I learned that Dr. Fishman would be retiring.”

The job opening was posted and Collin filled out an application packet and applied in the beginning of March. At the end of March, she was offered the opportunity to interview with the search committee and did that the first week of April.

In early May, she was called and offered an interview with the Board of Education in Stafford. That was followed by a day of focus group interviews and building tours at the end of May.

Collin said that after that, a visiting team – administrators, teachers, Board of Education members, parent and community members, the business manager, non-certified staff, and Fishman – from Stafford came to Somers.

After that, Collin was contacted by Stafford Board of Education Chairman Mark Fontanella who asked her if she would accept the position, and she did.

Collin expects that her fulltime position will begin the first week of August, but she is already working with the Stafford administration to ensure a smooth transition.

One thing Collin said she would like to look into when she takes over as superintendent is if Somers and Stafford can work together.

“I’m interested in really reflecting on and working with Somers in terms of maybe having discussions about how we can share resources, really to help promote student achievement in both districts,” she said. “There are probably ways in which we can share resources. I’d be definitely interested in exploring that.”