Charles Sulc Moves On

A few months after the moon landing in 1969, Charles Sulc began a his career in the auditorium of Massapequa High School.

"We had a one hour orientation with the principal at the time, Arthur O'Connell," Sulc said.

Sulc's 44-year career ended in the same school district where he started when Lucillie Iconis assumed the title of Superintendent at midnight Monday. Her swearing in ceremony will take place at next week's school board meeting.

It is the end of an era for Massapequa's public schools, and Sulc recently sat down with Patch to look back.

"I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I hit sophomore year of High School," Sulc said of that first day. " "I had some great mentors along the way that inspired me not only to be a teacher, but to be a math teacher."

At the same time, Sulc described himself as a "high energy" person who  knew that he would not stay a teacher forever.

"I figured I'd teach for 10 years, then do something else for ten years and then ten years doing something else,"  he said.

That's exactly what happened. "But it was all in education," Sulc said.

Sulc served as a department chair, an administrative assistant in the district's central office, Deputy Superintendent, acting and interim Superintendent, before  taking the top spot.

Sulc, said he was the youngest of four applicants for the Department chair position when he was picked in 1980. About eight years later he moved into the central office, where he worked on getting federal entitlement money for the district and handled human resources duties.

Sulc found this work was reqarding. "A lot of it is gut and instinct," he said of picking the right people for the district.

The job also taught him about handling negotiations  union grievances.  It would serve him well when administrative reorganization in 1992 made him a Deputy Superintendent.

In 2007 he got the top job suddenly and unexpectedly, when the school board suddenly suspended Superintendent Maureen Flaherty with a year left on her contract.

"She was suspended on a Thursday night, I think, and I started on a Friday morning."

Despite 37 years in the district, Sulc says you can never fully prepared to be Superintendent. "No matter how many years you have in the central office, when you walk in here, it's a different world."

Sulc said he could have been superintendent in 1999, but said hedidn't want to be considred for the job. He agreed to be acting acting Superintendent out of respect for the board and the situation at hand.

He was asked to find a permanent Superintendent and brought in a consultant to assist in the search.

He brought the consultant to meet with the school board and Sulc said the consultant asked  board members how strong the district was in curriculum and in the business office.

When the board assured the consultant that they were strong in those areas, he responded, "Then the best person for the job may be sitting in this room."

"I was the only person in the room with certification, to be Superintendent," Sulc said.

The job was his and Sulc presided over an administrative reorganization and the implementation of the state tax cap in the district.

He leaves at a time when New York state  is modifying their Annual Professional Performance Review, of teachers and Principals.

Sulc says that the APPR is an example of an area where the state is not serving our children well.

Calling that state's  plan, "A one size fits all approach," Sulc said that he'd have preferred if local school districts plans that were submitted to the state should should have been approved by the education department, or the districts should have been given guidance in areas where they weren't up to the state standard.

He's more optimistic about curriculum issues and is says that education is keeping up with change in students.

"I think the world they're living in now is a world that fosters global communication," he said. "If we're not doing what we need to do to expand their horizons ...and give them a broader knowledge base,  they're not going to be ready for the world they're going to be living in."

Sulc  says the best part of the job is the people he met along the way.  "This is a community that has truly supported education," he said.