Superintendent Richardson Announces Plans to Retire

LEONARDTOWN -- Superintendent Patricia M. Richardson announced plans to retire in December 2004 after 32.5 years of service to the St. Mary's County Public Schools. The announcement was made at today’s Board of Education meeting.

Dr. Richardson began her career at Piney Point Elementary School as a third grade teacher in 1972, after graduating from the University of Maryland. She served as a reading specialist, principal of Lettie Marshall Dent Elementary School, and director of curriculum and instruction, before being named acting superintendent in July, 1996. In 1997, she was appointed superintendent of the St. Mary's County Public Schools.

During her 8.5 year tenure as superintendent, student enrollment grew by approximately 2,500 students. "Working with the most dedicated and talented educators I will ever know, we have made many significant accomplishments," said Richardson. "Among those of which I am most proud are the following:

• We co-signed a five-year funding agreement with the county commissioners to provide adequate operating funds for our schools.
• We increased the number of Advanced Placement (AP) courses from 5 in 1995-1996 to 21 in 2004-2005.
• We increased the enrollment in AP courses from 170 to 1,371 during this same time period and agreed to pay the AP test fee to ensure that all interested students would have the means to participate.
• We improved teachers’ salaries by 42 percent.
• We added 22 assistant principals to provide additional on-site support at the schools.
• We modernized and expanded: Great Mills High School, Chopticon High School, Leonardtown High School, Esperanza Middle School, Piney Point Elementary School, Benjamin Banneker Elementary School, and Lexington Park Elementary School. We are in the process of completing major renovations at the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center and Margaret Brent Middle School, and expect to break ground on the George Washington Carver replacement school this fall.
• We reduced the average age of our facilities from 38 years to 18 years.
• We hired over 1,100 new teachers.
• We added an information technology science course to the middle school curriculum and achieved a student to high-end computer ratio of 3.7 to 1. This represents the second best ratio in the state.
• We placed a counselor in every elementary school and a nurse in every school.
• We converted half of our 56 kindergarten programs to full-day programs.
• We added girls’ soccer, boys’ and girls’ lacrosse and swimming to our athletics program.
• We enhanced our music program by expanding the strings program and adding an orchestra program."

Richardson stated, "I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every role I have had -- classroom teacher, reading specialist, elementary principal, director of curriculum and instruction, and, of course, superintendent. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with the outstanding educators in our school system, especially my executive team. Through their efforts, we have taken this school system from good to great over the last nine years. I will truly miss my colleagues here. At the same time, I am very excited about the opportunity to be back at the University of Maryland working in the College of Education assuming responsibility for graduate program development for teachers and administrators, as well as teaching courses in the master’s and doctoral programs.

I want to thank this Board, our staff, the school community, and, most of all, the incredible students we serve for the gift of being part of the St. Mary’s County Public Schools."