KYSERIKE, N.Y. >> Rondout Valley school district Superintendent Rosario Agostaro has announced he’ll retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year, giving the Board of Education more than a year to find a successor.
Agostaro, 56, said Monday that he’s retiring to spend more time with his family.
“Being a superintendent is very demanding, and if you want it done well, it does require a lot of time,” he said. “So it’s more family time and catching up on a lot of things that I have put on hold.”
Agostaro, who has been Rondout Valley’s superintendent since 2009, said the most important lesson he has learned in the district has been how to take responsibility for decisions.
“In the past, I was always giving advice or giving suggestions to the superintendent,” he said.
Agostaro previously was an assistant superintendent for the Newburgh Enlarged City School District. He began his career in education as an earth science teacher in the Washingtonville school system.
“I don’t think it ever changes, where you’re a classroom teacher first,” he said.
“That passion and desire to be in with kids, that never changes,” Agostaro said. “It (being superintendent) is just a different capacity of working with kids. I’d often pop into classrooms when I had the opportunity to watch kids learning and provide any feedback to our teachers.”
He said that “looking to find ways to improve academic achievement… [has] always been my number one goal.”
Agostaro said keeping up with changes in technology has been a key part of his job leading the Rondout Valley district.
“In maybe my second or third year, we began looking at ways in which technology could be a component of instruction – not necessarily making it different, but how could it support us,” he said. “Devices are in almost every facet of our life, whether it be the grocery store [or] the doctor’s office … so we wanted to provide the opportunity for our kids to be immersed in that technology.”
Agostaro said he also has enjoyed connecting school programs with the district’s agricultural community.
“I’m incredibly proud of our farm-to-school program,” he said. “I think we’re a leader in that area … and that could only happen with our relationship with the Rondout Valley Growers Association. My hope is … that relationship will be longstanding.”
