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Ralph Mayo Excited to Return to Greenwich High School

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By Richard Kaufman
Sentinel Reporter

Author Thomas Wolfe once said that you can’t go home again, but interim Superintendent of Greenwich Public Schools, Ralph Mayo, is doing just that.

Two weeks ago, Mayo announced that he will be going back to Greenwich High School, the place where his career in education began 42 years ago, to serve as interim Headmaster. The decision came after an extensive search yielded no clear-cut candidates for the job. Mayo will begin his new role on July 1.

Mayo was born and raised in Greenwich and graduated from GHS. He began his career there as a teacher’s aide, in 1976, and later became an English teacher, in 1980. Mayo then held a number of leadership roles at the high school, and was eventually named Program Administrator for Special Education, followed by Housemaster for Clark House. He even served as interim Headmaster for a brief stint in 1999.

Mayo moved to Eastern Middle School where he was the principal for 14 years. He was appointed as the interim Superintendent, in June 2018, following the departure of Dr. Jill Gildea. This past January, Dr. Toni Jones, of Fairfield, was appointed to take over permanently, effective July 1.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say [when I first started working in Greenwich] that in the back of my mind that I’d really love to be the Headmaster of Greenwich High School one day,” Mayo said recently. “But that passed. I was at Eastern, I was happy, things were going very well and then this opportunity came along to be interim Superintendent. I really wasn’t thinking about [going to GHS] too much in recent years. I was focused on Eastern and didn’t have a lot of time to think about what could have been. I always thought I’d be retiring from EMS.”

In fact, Mayo always thought he’d pursue a career in athletics and coaching.

“I fell in love with coaching, and coaching is teaching. Once I headed into the classroom, I started loving that, and things just evolved after that. I’ve never thought about going elsewhere, or doing anything else,” he said.

It’s that commitment to the District and community for four-plus decades that has created an outpouring of support and well wishes from the community following the recent announcement.

On social media in particular, residents expressed happiness and relief that Mayo was staying in Greenwich, following the appointment of Jones as Superintendent.

“That makes me feel really good about going back to the high school,” Mayo said of receiving support from the community. “I’m often overwhelmed by this kind of stuff. I don’t expect it. My job for the last 42 years has been to take care of the kids in this district, and that’s what I’ve been doing. I think of it as doing my job. I guess I’ve been doing it well, and people are happy that I’m making this move. I finally realized that this is what I’ve been made to do.”

First Selectman, Peter Tesei, said he was pleased to see Mayo stay in a leadership role.

“He clearly has shown his capabilities during his interim superintendency. I think he’s a tremendous asset to the school district and particularly at the high school,” Tesei said.

Some people expressed disappointment at the “interim” label placed next to Mayo’s name again in an important role. But Mayo said that decision was made by him.

“The interim label is my choice, not anybody else’s choice. I want to see how I’m feeling about being a high school principal again, and what it’s like. If I’m feeling like this is the role for me, then I can apply for the permanent position like anyone else,” Mayo said.

Jones will conduct a future search to bring in a Headmaster/Headmistress for the 2020- 2021 school year.

Mayo said that, in his current role of interim Superintendent, he’s learned that he misses being around students and teachers on a daily basis, and feeling the energy and excitement inside school hallways.

“There’s a whole different mindset and a whole different way of going about your work [as a Superintendent]. I have a great leadership team in place here at the Board of Education. We work very well together, but it’s not the same as working in the school. It’s a different feeling,” he said.

“Would I have loved to have stayed here as Superintendent? Yeah. I like the people here and I think we’re moving forward on a number of different initiatives which I think in the end will help the district,” Mayo added. “But that wasn’t in the cards, so here I am, back to GHS. That’s not a second place trophy as far as I’m concerned.”

Mayo said that during his tenure, the District has made strides in how it approaches and monitors the capital plan. He noted that the District is working closely with the Board of Estimate and Taxation to make processes and procedures more efficient and comprehensive. The District came under fire after they didn’t have adequate funds to fix the roof at Julian Curtiss School last summer.

“We’re going to be able to monitor a project from the day we think of it to the day it’s closed out,” he said. “As a town resident and someone who has lived here for a long time, I don’t want to see money wasted and neither does anyone else. We’re going to make sure that people understand that we’re doing our best to get those procedures in place so there isn’t any kind of mistakes made where we are put in position where we are going to spend money that we don’t have.”

Going into the high school, Mayo said he expects a “learning curve” because he hasn’t worked there in about 15 years.

“This is going to be a big change because this job is so much different than being a building principal,” he said.

Mayo said he plans on doing a lot of observing and listening before setting goals or objectives. He said that closing the achievement gap is something he wants to work on.

Current interim Headmaster, Rick Piotrzkowski, will move back to his preferred role of assistant Headmaster. Piotrzkowski took over at the beginning of this school year for Dr. Chris Winters, who went to Greenwich Country Day School.

Mayo said he’s excited to work with Piotrzkowski once again.

“Former Yankees manager, Joe Torre, once said, ‘The difference between the Yankees and other teams is we have Derek Jeter and they don’t.’ That’s the difference between GHS and every other high school that I know of,” Mayo said. “We have Rick Piotrzkowski and they don’t. He makes that place work. He’s such an amazing educator.”

Mayo added that he couldn’t have imagined being in the District for this long. He believes the students, their parents and the faculty and staff at Greenwich’s public schools make the District special.

“They’re our best resources,” he said. “You get the whole package here; you don’t just get one aspect of the community. The athletics, the music, the academics…We get that whole package and that doesn’t happen at a lot of other places. I’m very proud to be here at this time in the community.” 

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