-: Hi I'm Pat Cosentino, superintendent
of Region 12 schools in Connecticut.
Well superintendent is the educational leader
of a school system, it's someone who helps plan
the vision and the mission in collaboration
with staff and the community to move the schools forward.
It's all about student achievement
and helping students to be successful in life.
I try to be grounded in what's best for kids,
also pillars of respect for all and kindness
so that this way we teach kids to be not only smart
and achieve but also good people.
One of our big successes in Region 12
is agriscience STEM program, we are gonna become
the 20th agriscience program in the state.
Being a superintendent is about building relationships
and when you start a program like that,
you have to make connections with community members,
outside organizations, you have to get your parents
to buy in, your staff to buy in,
and most importantly you have to work with the state
so there's a lot of bureaucratic paperwork
dealing with the legislators
to help get some funding and backing.
My hours are, I never have a day that's similar to another
day, which is one of the things I like about the job,
it is definitely more than 40 hours,
it's not a nine to five job.
I have a lot of night meetings,
there's always at least two board meetings a month
and then other meetings because I'm in a region,
I have three towns and four schools
so on any given night there is a sporting event,
a parent meeting, a community meeting,
so you try to be visible and try to make sure
that you plan your calendar so that you are
hitting everybody as much as you can.
I'm a member of the Rotary, so that I do lunch
with them every two weeks,
I attend Lion meetings, I go to senior centers,
I meet with the select people.
So and then I try to get into the schools,
so my job is to make sure that kids are being educated,
student achievement is on the rise,
we're moving towards continuous improvement
so I have meetings with administrators
and teachers and central office staff.
So the days are varied, I assume if I come in at eight,
if I'm home by seven, that's a good day for me.
That is really a good day.