The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Allowing for ‘new eyes, and new ideas’
Board of Ed member leaving after over a decade
PORTLAND — MaryAnne Rode, who served on the Board of Education and as chairwoman during some of its most strenuous times, stepped down from the board this week.
In doing so, Rode said it is time for some “new blood, new eyes, and new ideas” to take over.
The mother of “two children Portland born and raised,” Rode had served on the school board since 2006, a period that saw first the calamitous Great Recession and then the state’s deepening budget crisis that resulted in large-scale cutbacks in state aid for education.
Through it all, working first with Superintendent of Schools Sally E. Doyen and then with Superintendent Philip B. O’Reilly, Rode sought “to improve the quality of education all while remaining fiscally responsible.”
“I feel we have come a long way and I’m proud of what we have accomplished,” Rode said during a telephone interview .
But with her two children having moved on to college — her daughter in Boston and her son in Vermont — Rode said now was an appropriate time to step aside.
“I have new responsibilities in my personal life” including “spending more time with my husband,” she said.
In 2006, Rode was recruited by then-board chairman Christopher Hetrick to fill a vacancy on the board.
“Initially, I was very hesitant. I didn’t know what I could bring to the board. I was just a mom,” Rode said.
But Hetrick told her “I feel like you would be a great addition to the board,” and so Rode agreed to join the panel.
Her decision coincided with Doyen’s hiring.
“She was new when I came on the board, so we grew together,” Rode said.
Her oversight of the board won Rode plaudits from O’Reilly and First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield.
“MaryAnne Rode’s passion and commitment to our school system has extended throughout a generation of students,” O’Reilly said in an email on Thursday.
“Her skillful leadership and keen interpersonal skills have adeptly ushered us through change and growth as we introduced Project Lead the Way, embraced the Open Choice program and successively guided us through more than a dozen budget seasons,” O’Reilly said. “Her voice of reason and strong conviction will be missed at Board of Education meetings, and I will personally miss the collaborative partnership that we established throughout my tenure as superintendent of schools.”
O’Reilly wasn’t finished, however.
He sent a second email that said, “I have never worked with a chair so committed and so dedicated to doing what’s right for kids!”
In turn, Rode said of O’Reilly, “I do have a lot of respect for him.”
“With all he knows, he’s an easy person to respect, and that makes him an easy person to work with,” Rode said.
“I don’t use this word very often but she was a fabulous leader,” Bransfield said during a Thursday telephone conversation.
“MaryAnne is a strong, very positive leader who was very helpful in carefully guiding the school system through some very difficult financial times,” Bransfield said.
Bransfield described Rode as “inspirational,” adding “She is a deeply spiritual person who worked very, very hard and served her community so well.”
Rode played an essential role in forging a close collaboration between and among O’Reilly, Bransfield and the town’s Director of Finance Tom E. Robinson, Bransfield said.
“We meet constructively, constantly and positively to make sure education is properly funded,” she said.
“The relationship with the town has grown by leaps and bounds,” Rode said, crediting O’Reilly, Bransfield and Robinson for making that happen.
“I think if a superintendent and the first selectman are not connecting, there is strife,” Rode said.
But that was not the case with O’Reilly and Bransfield. “There was a strong desire on the part of both of them to work together for common goals, and I think that’s in everyone’s best interest,” Rode said.
Among many other accomplishments, the town was recognized for having two schools win nationally recognized blue ribbons for excellence in education during Rode’s tenure on the board, Bransfield said.