Noonan Reflects on 17-Year Run as NJ Superintendent

Dr. Richard Noonan's career took many turns, some unexpected, to bring him to this point.

A self-described desire to educate disadvantaged students, along with participation in some high-level programs, has been the main driving force behind his professional path. It put him on the road to eventually becoming superintendent at Madison, where he leaves after six years to take the same position in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District in Pennsylvania.

The Massachusetts native grew up right outside of Boston, graduating Wellesley High School after having classes with a few inspirational teachers who first turned his thoughts toward education.

A history buff who majored in American studies at Brown, Noonan's career began in earnest immediately after graduation when he took a teaching fellowship at Duke University through the Rockefeller Foundation for two summers to get his master's in teaching. As part of the program, Noonan was placed as a beginning teacher in Greenwich, Conn.

He taught there for nine years, the last two as principal of the district's alternative school. He enjoyed his time there, but something seemed to be missing.

"Greenwich was a very privileged community," Noonan said. "I always considered myself to be an idealist. I decided that I really needed to try something different, and in particular work in an urban system where I would could get a chance to inspire and develop disadvantaged students."

With that desire, Noonan left Greenwich in 1983 and went to New York City to finish up his doctorate at Teachers College at Columbia University while working in the city's chancellor's office for two years.

"I was able to work with a great group of people who at that time were doing some pretty dramatic things to try to turn New York City schools around," Noonan said.

Noonan said part of that was changing the philosophy from large comprehensive high scho0ls with over 10,000 students, to a more intimate education experience.

"That clearly isn't a great environment for kids who require lots of support and lots of extra help," Noonan said.

Noonan was part of a unit with the chancellor's admissions office, which was empowered to redesign high schools across the city, setting up 10-15 different smaller thematic high schools. The unit also established a mentoring program for at risk kids.

"That was just really rewarding and great to see when it got established, and the positive difference we made in the lives of unprivileged students was just wonderful," Noonan said. "It was completely different from where I lived the last 9-11 years in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was great."

It also helped convince him that he wanted to be involved in education from an administrative perspective.

"I never really aspired to be a school superintendent," Noonan said. "I got involved in the doctorate program because I wanted to be best teacher at Greenwich High School. So I really wanted to learn as much as could about being a great teacher. My thought had been I would continue as a teacher and maybe someday be a college professor. When got started with it, I found it was surprisingly satisfying work."

The path to Madison, and being a superintendent in general, began after his doctorate at Teachers College when he took a position at Glen Rock as the director of curriculum. Noonan said curriculum development is a passion of his, and he held that position from 1985-88.

He remained in that capacity when he went to Rye, N.Y., to become the assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction. From there, he took his first superintendent's job in the Bernardsville-Somerset Hills district in 1993. He helped regionalize the district during his tenure. Next, he was superintendent at Rumson beginning in 2000, before taking the job in the Rose City.

Part of the reason he came to the district was for his own kids. He and his family, wife Pam and daughters Kendra and Brooke, have lived in Chatham since 1993. Kendra is a rising senior at Bucknell and Brooke begins classes at Michigan this fall.

"I spent five years commuting to Monmouth County, and wanted to be closer to home," he said. "My oldest daughter was moving into her high school years and was very active athletically. So, when you are commuting over an hour to work, it's hard to see games and really stay connected with all the high school activities she was involved with. I wanted to get closer to home so I could be more of a full participant."

Madison was also an attractive district to Noonan for a number of other reasons. He said he had always heard positive things about Madison, and that while living in Chatham he always thought Madison stood out for its theatre, downtown and universities.

"I thought Madison always seemed like a great community and had more diversity than Chatham," Noonan said. "It was richer culturally. I heard great things about the school district and it was closer to home. Those are things that were really attractive to me about the place."

Noonan was contacted to see if he would be interested in applying for the job, and after a relatively short process which involved a public forum where members of the community were able to ask him questions and get to know the top candidate for the job, he was hired in 2004.

Noonan looks back fondly on the passing of the referendum that brought improvements and upgrades to Madison's schools. He is also proud of helping to make MJS a true junior school.

He remembers the hard work members of the community put in during a three-day planning retreat to agree upon a shared vision on the district's strategic plan. Two students who took part in that process–Ben Wieler and Ester Johansson-Lebron–also hold a special place with Noonan. Wieler passed away tragically with family members by his side in Barcelona, Spain, last year following complications from surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. He was studying abroad during his junior year at Middlebury College in Vermont. Johansson-Lebron is currently a student at Amherst College in Amherst, Mass.

"They were just amazing," Noonan said. "They were both incredibly bright, insightful, extraordinarily poised and confident for 17 or 18. Their involvement and participation in our strategic planning retreats was inspirational for all of the adults in the room. It really gave us a sense of how important it is to get this right, and have a great school system here to develop and to continue to develop students of that sort and that caliber."

The group of about 30 people helped come up with the district mission statement that hangs in the Madison High School library, along with about five strategies it agreed upon to pursue going forward to make the district stronger.

True to form, Noonan is satisfied with the curriculum development he has helped implement while at Madison.

"We revitalized the K-12 science program," Noonan said. "We took an inquiry based approach with K-8, where they are more excited about learning in the area of science. I think those areas of revitalizing the curriculum, and creating a more dynamic learning environment in our schools, I think we made some nice headway there and that's particularly satisfying."

Noonan said he will miss all of the students and parents who were heavily involved in the district, people he describes as passionate. He said he will also miss the staff and Board of Education members. At the most recent BOE meeting, Noonan said President Lisa Ellis and Vice President Pat Rowe are almost like family to him.

"This is a terrific place to work and I think it's a really great school district," Noonan said. "I have enormous hopes for it going forward, and I think it is healthy for the school district and organization to bring in new leadership just to keep itself growing, stretching and reaching. So I think that's a good thing for Madison."