Departing Principal Reflects

On Her Time At Middle Gate

By Eliza Hallabeck

With the end of the year quickly approaching as concerts are held and each final project is turned in by students, Middle Gate Principal Judith Liestman reflected on her time at Middle Gate this week.

Ms Liestman, who has been principal of Middle Gate for the past 11 years, announced at the March 29 Board of Education meeting she was anticipating relocating to New York to be with her husband. For the past two years Ms Liestman has been traveling roughly six hours on the weekends to visit her husband in New York, where he was transferred for his job.

Ms Liestman began at the school in July 1999. Before becoming principal of Middle Gate School, Ms Liestman was a program leader for language arts and social studies for kindergarten through eighth grade in Trumbull.

“I had really spent most of my career in the classroom as a classroom teacher at the elementary level,” said Ms Liestman.

She says people in the field began to see her as a potential candidate for principal when a position in the Trumbull school district for overseeing instruction for teachers, in the early days of the Connecticut Mastery Test, opened up.

Ms Liestman earned her administrative degree in 1992, and began looking for open central office positions.

“I would have loved to stay in Trumbull, but sometimes I think you have to go outside your district to find your own niche,” said Ms Liestman.

Then-superintendent of schools John Reed interviewed Ms Liestman for the open position at Middle Gate.

“I came and met with him on a Saturday,” she recalled, “and John is such a thinking person. I remember him asking me a couple questions, then telling me a lot about the district. I went home, and I said I just really didn’t get to say everything I wanted to say. I ended up writing him a letter and telling him everything I wanted to say.”

Ms Liestman was invited back, and interviewed for the position before a committee, which included former Board of Education chair Elaine McClure and Sandy Hook School Principal Donna Pagé, who also will be retiring from her position at the end of the school year.

“It just felt like a fit, right from the beginning,” she said. “I think what they were looking for was a change in the language arts program, and I believe I was the right fit for that.”

Despite wanting to be a teacher from a young age, Ms Liestman said teaching was not always what she wanted for a career.

She grew up in Fairfield, and, after attending Our Lady Of Assumption School and Andrew Ward High School, Ms Liestman attended Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., as a German major with a minor in international business.

A Dream Of Teaching

“I wanted to be a teacher from when I was 7 years old,” she said. Two of her aunts, Ann Ellsworth and Evelyn Killeen, were teachers in Bridgeport. They lived together, and would travel together during the summers. Ms Liestman said her aunts’ lives were all about teaching.

As a child, Ms Liestman would write lessons and read instruction magazines published for teachers. She said her staff would laugh now knowing that she read Grade Teacher as a child.

“I thought being a teacher was the most amazing thing,” Ms Liestman said. “You can work teaching kids all day, and you can go traveling in the summer, which is my other passion.”

In the 1970s, Ms Liestman said, there seemed to be only two career choices for women; being a nurse or being a teacher. Neither Ms Liestman’s mother nor father had attended college, and, she said, as an only child, she became the first in her immediate family to do so.

“There weren’t a lot of people with big careers in my family,” she said. “My father always said, ‘You should be a teacher. It is a good career to fall back on as a woman.’”

It was her father’s statement that made her decide to change her career path and attend college with the hope of eventually working in the import-export field.

“What I didn’t remember, was my need to raise a family,” she said. “I just wanted to be with kids.” She realized many years later that import-export “wasn’t a great fit for me as a wife and mother. And I went back into teaching.”

She earned her master’s degree in teaching from the University of Bridgeport when she was in her 30s. At that point in her life, she said, her life changed drastically as a single mother of two children. Working during the day at a Catholic school, Ms Liestman attended classes at night.

Teaching was a great career fit for her, she said, and she went on to earn her sixth-year degree from Southern Connecticut State University.

“I’ve loved it everyday, and I still find it so interesting that I love that I made that decision back then,” she said.

Motivation

Her sons, Tom and Anthony, gave her motivation.

“I felt like I need to show them that you can do anything if you study and work hard,” said Ms Liestman. Tom, her oldest, is now a physics teacher, and Anthony is a recording engineer and producer in New York City.

In Newtown, Ms Liestman said she found a mentor in Ms Pagé. Working with all the administration in Newtown has been wonderful, she said.

But four years ago Ms Liestman’s husband was informed his company could be relocating to New York. The news came one year after the two were married. Ms Liestman responded first by looking at her options and decided immediately to become certified in New York.

“New York as reciprocity with many states,” she said, “so that’s were I started looking for certification.”

Through the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education she became certified as a superintendent.

“Then the actual thing happened, the move came true,” she said, “and we have been living apart for two years. My hope was to retire from Newtown, but we can’t continue this commute, which is five to six hours every other weekend.”

It was easier for her to make the change than it would be for him to make the change. Ms Liestman has been hired to be the director of student services in Pittsford, N.Y.

She is going to miss Middle Gate School, but is excited about her new position.

“Mostly I am proud of hiring and working with this multitalented staff,” said Ms Liestman, who has hired all but eight people at the school. She is also proud of the literacy program at Middle Gate, which includes creating a literacy center at the school.

“We’ve really tried to develop a culture at the school where everyone feels important,” she said, adding the partnership between parents and the school has been successful.

Her hope is parents will continue to be involved in the school.

“Their commitment to the school is vital to their child’s success,” Ms Liestman said.

One of the best things about the staff, she said, is each member always wants to continue to learn. If she could tell the staff one thing, it would be to continue this. The school has done some great things with the Response to Intervention program, she said, adding the teachers should continue to reflect on their lessons.

She will miss the office staff at the school, too, especially Carol Lawson.

“They are an amazing team here,” she said.

To the next principal of Middle Gate School, Ms Liestman said that person should be thankful to land in Newtown, because it is an incredible community.

“That person would be really wise to review what is in place, and help it to continue,” said Ms Liestman, adding she hopes to work closely with the person before she leaves.

For the students, Ms Liestman said they should figure out what they are best at and strengthen that quality.

“They’ve got a great start,” said Ms Liestman, “and now I think they will have opportunities to try new things.”

Ms Liestman said she will miss the community, and has been thankful for the support Middle Gate has received over the years.