After nine years of serving as The Gilbert School’s Superintendent, Dr. Anthony Serio is retiring. Dr. Serio has had a 49-year career in education. He graduated from Boston College with a Master’s Degree School Counseling and Psychology in 1976. He also earned a Certificate of Advanced Educational Studies in 1984 from Boston College in psychology and went on to earn a Doctor of Education Degree from The University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1999.
He worked in the North Reading, Massachusetts public school system, first as a sixth-grade teacher from 1972 to 1976, then a counselor and school psychologist from 1976 to 1984. He also worked as a child therapist for the Human Resouce Institute in Malden, Massachusetts from 1978-1984.
He then entered administration in the Gill-Montague Regional School District in Massachusetts, first as a Director of Special Education from 1984 to 1988, Assistant Superintendent from 1988 to 1993 focused on special education, early childhood education and curriculum development and Superintendent from 1993 to 2000.
Subsequently, he also served from 2000 to 2006 as the Superintendent for the Canton School District in Connecticut, and the Superintendent for the Billerica School District in Massachusetts from 2006 to 2011 right before coming to Gilbert.
During his time at Gilbert, he, along with the W.L. Gilbert Trust, created the school’s International Program in 2013, bringing students from around the world to Gilbert. He has also led the school into the use of modern 21st century technology, project-based learning, and for the past year through a worldwide pandemic.
In this interview, which was given a week after graduation, Dr. Serio reflects on the time he had at Gilbert.
How would you describe your time at Gilbert?:
“Very creative. I would describe my time as very creative because I was put in charge of starting the International Program. That was on the Trust side and it allowed us to bring a global perspective into the school.
I’m a firm believer in project-based learning and I was able to get us connected with High Tech High in San Diego, California. It happens to be, in my opinion, the best example of project-based learning. They have an outreach educational program that we have utilized by bringing their people here to train our staff and we have sent staff to their deeper learning training. We had two of our Gilbert staff members go out and be trained as trainers to work with our teachers at TGS.”
How does Gilbert differ from the previous places that you were working at?
“Gilbert is extremely unique. It’s an endowed academy and it has a relationship with the town. We all know that it has not always been the smoothest relationship. It is also a one-building school.
This is the smallest school district I have ever worked in during my career. The highest number of students we had here at Gilbert was over 500 students. It’s also unique because of the governance structure. The structure includes five trustees and four residents from Winchester some who serve on the Winchester Board of Education.
My position was also extremely unique because I was Head of School for the Gilbert Trust, taking care of the Trust business side, and Superintendent for the public school side. I don’t know how many people knew I had two jobs.
I would add that it is also unique because it is an endowed academy. The relationship that it does have with the town to educate their secondary studnts, and also the fact that it includes two very distinctive jobs that dovetail because the International Program does assist in the running of this school by giving financial support through tuition.”
When you said ‘guard the fort’ in your graduation speech, what did you mean by that?:
“It’s been a long struggle to try to get the Winchester Board of Education to sign a contract with The W. L. Gilbert School Corp.
To be honest about it, I do feel that we are in a situation now with this Litchfield contract, that the WBOE has approved and Litchfield’s Board of Education has approved, as just the beginning of sending students elsewhere, other than Gilbert for high school. I think it erodes what we can do here and sends tax dollars to other places. I do believe it is the beginning of what is going to be an attempt, much like the state receiver did, to lower our tuition to the point where we are going to have to cut services and programs.
So, what do you do? You have to guard against that dismantling happening. What is the dismantling? It is the sending of the students to different districts. Sending taxpayer's dollars to other districts that could go here keeping the tax dollars in Winchester.
To me, Gilbert is like a fort. Back in the old days, a fort would have walls crumble because it was being attacked. You had to have people who were willing to stand in the gap and make sure that nothing else was going to erode or break through. We have to find people who are willing to defend Gilbert. I often talked about the fact that I would have to strap on my chainmail and enter the arena. That’s one of my analogies about it all, one of the things I try to create as an image because it’s real, I would fight for the school.
I just hope people are watching and understanding what is happening, those who do have passion for Gilbert, the ones who bleed blue and gold, will all stand up and say ‘Hey! I see what’s going on! Politically I should get involved!’”
How do we keep Gilbert going for another 125 years?:
“I believe that Gilbert will have to continue to reinvent itself. I think that the state has to realize that Gilbert, Woodstock Academy and Norwich Free Academy were the original charter schools. They might have been called endowed academies, but they were the original magnet schools. They had to attract all of the students who didn’t have a high school to come to their campuses. I think Gilbert can continue to attract students. I think Gilbert can continue its International Program, have that global perspective, and also continue to emphasize this entire thought process.
That thought process is: 'How do we separate ourselves from other schools?' Project-based learning is a significant part of it. The other is its caring heart.
To me, this place has a heart. This place cares about its students. We are doing meaningful things in our outreach to the community. They know we are there for them and their children. It’s those unique things that you have for them that you have to sell to the community.
What I would like to see Gilbert do is be able to go into the surrounding communites and say ‘You can come to our school and get a project based education, 21st-century skills are being taught, more individualized in the sense of caring for your children. That’s what I would like to see.
But how do you do that? You have to have cooperation from legislation to say, you know what, an endowed academy can still attract students from anywhere in the State whether they are in towns serviced by Region 7, or Litchfield, or Torrington.
People can recognize that it is unique enough so that they would want to send their children here and the money would follow the student from the State coffers to TGS and the towns would have to provide some portion of the tuition not provided by the State, like in the vo-ag programs and magnet schools. That is what will keep TGS going for another 125 more years.”
What are your favorite memories of your time here at Gilbert?:
“I can still recall the very first Moon Festivals when we had them at the Northwest YMCA. We worked with Fran Delaney from Friends of Main Street on that event to welcome our first international students.
Also, I have fond memories of our award ceremonies that honor our distinguished alumni. Those are the memories that will stay with me, along with the memories of these wonderful, very talented students and faculty. Those things I will always remember.
I will remember everything from my very first interview, seeing that shooting star on the way back to my home in Massachusetts, and feeling the warmth that I had that night during that interview.
I will always remember the human kindness that this place showed me when my wife passed away. I will never forget that. This place was here for me.
I still remember the young volleyball team running a fundraiser and donating to Dana Farber for cancer research in her name. It will be things like that which will be the things that will always come to mind.
You can't replace human kindness. It's always going to remain with you. Just like being able to sit at dinner with the international students, which I did many times. Also, I will remember many of the great students. This graduating class, maybe it's the kids that were here when my wife passed away, and they were Freshmen at the time, they are such a great class. There have been many others in the past who were all just outstanding citizens, young people that you knew were all going to go far in life.”
How would you describe the teachers, administrators, and students of Gilbert over the past 10 years?:
“The first thing is their caring, including their caring for kids, and the school community’s families. When you think about the work that goes into the Thanksgiving dinners, or the Christmas Elves program, reaching out to people to provide gifts for their children, as well as a nice hot meal. Or the fact that we have an emergency fund so kids who don’t have, can have.
Those are the things that I am talking about when I say that Gilbert has a heart. Gilbert is a caring and sharing community.
You can see that in the teachers. You can tell that in the teachers and administrators. It doesn’t matter what staff position that you are in, you can witness that and know that it is real.”
What advice would you give the new headmaster that is coming in?:
“I would tell him that he has to pay very careful attention to what happens at the WBOE level.
I would advise him that he has to protect this place from erosion whether it is sending kids off to other districts, or if it has to do with any attempt to lessen our tuition.
We are at a critical point and I think he has to work with Winchester Superintendent of Schools, Melony Brady-Shanley, and he has to work with WBOE members on his Board known as the School Corporation, and he has to work to understand that we are providing a comprehensive high school that has all departments fully functioning, and still has a business department and fine arts program.
There's a whole career tech department that is real here, and it's something for the students, it gives them an ability to do hands-on activities. We still have a full music program, including a marching band. We want to keep up these programs, just like we want to keep up our AP courses, as well as our remediation courses. It's all an important part of the fabric of who we are at TGS. I will emphasize that to him as I am walking out the door.”
How do you want to be remembered?:
“I want to be remembered as a person who cared about his school and students. The way I look at it, your job as superintendent is really about being that linchpin that provides the opportunities and linkages for people to do their jobs. And their job is to care for the kids.
Besides the guy who puts on the chainmail and fights for the budget, I often would describe myself as the snowplow. Because one of the things I have to do is to make sure that my teachers and administrators have a clear road to get their jobs done. We've taken care of the roads for you so you can drive with clear passage to do your job. It’s about caring. Here's a guy with compassion and cared about people, including his community as his family. And that's how I run the business. I ran the business as a family business.”
What are your future plans?:
“I will be visiting with my kids. They're going to start coming up here in July, and August. I am also going to be going cross country with my son and stay in San Diego for a while. Then I am going to go to Disney World to celebrate my retirement. Then during the holidays, I'm going to decide what I am going to do next.”
