Colin Byrne to retire in June as Blind Brook superintendent
November 7, 2024 at 12:25 a.m.
When Blind Brook Superintendent Dr. Colin Byrne started his career in the district in 2003 as a computer teacher and technology facilitator, he promised himself that he would never be an administrator.
“I swore off it for years,” he laughed. “I had no interest in it, and I didn’t want to do it. But then opportunity came up.”
He made a similar pledge when he was promoted to director of technology in 2008.
“I really swore I wouldn’t be a superintendent. But here we are,” he said, gesturing to himself while sitting outside the Blind Brook administration building on an unseasonably warm fall day.
From 2018 to 2022, Byrne served as superintendent of curriculum and instruction, with two stints as the interim superintendent of schools, before signing a three-year contract for his current position.
But he’d kept one promise in the back of his mind.
“I had always planned on retiring after 30 years in education,” he said, accounting for the years he taught math outside the district. “And, without getting too deep into my personal life, there have been some things in my life that have happened, especially in my wife’s family, that have really weighed on us. This job is a lot, so it really makes sense for me to move on from education right now.”
On Monday, Nov. 4, the district sent an email to Blind Brook families announcing that Byrne will be retiring on June 30, 2025.
Byrne was quick to address the idea that his decision was influenced by outside factors.
“I’m not angry with anyone and I wasn’t asked to leave,” he said plainly. “I’ve loved my time here. It’s really just a timing thing.”
Though it’s been 21 years since he started, he still vividly remembers how he got his start in the district while searching for teaching jobs.
“My father-in-law used to cut out job ads in The New York Times for my wife and I,” he recalled. “And one day, we walked into his house and my wife picked up the job listing. She read it, handed it to me and said, ‘You’re getting this job.’ So, I applied, and the rest is history.”
Byrne credits his climb to the highest position in the district to its size.
“Because the administration team was so lean, I was picking up some other roles and learning about different aspects of the district,” he said. “Eventually, when the superintendent job came up, I felt I had enough experience to handle it.”
He’s made Blind Brook his home, which is especially easy when it’s a five-minute drive from his actual domicile in Greenwich, Conn.
“I think that’s why I can make it to all the events and really be present,” he said. “Which I think is very important as a superintendent. The community wants to see that the administration cares about them in more than just the educational environment.”
According to Board of Education President Jeff Mensch, it’s part of what’s made Byrne an effective superintendent.
“Colin being so present gave the district a feeling of stability and people gave him their trust because of that,” he said. “The faculty, the community, the staff and students. Everyone knows he’s an honest broker.”
Byrne said he tried his best to provide the district with stability based on when he started.
“It was definitely a challenging time,” he said of his first appointment as interim superintendent after Jonathan Ross stepped down to focus on the $44.7 million bond project in 2018. “If it were up to me, I certainly wouldn’t have picked to have my first year of superintendency during the COVID pandemic, but it was.”
It was a dramatic period during which the district was low on administrators—when he took the reins in 2022, he was the third superintendent in five years, an assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction hadn’t been selected to replace him and both the superintendent of finance and facilities and athletic director had left after less than two years.
But Byrne is confident the current administrative team will stay strong following his departure.
“I would hope they’re not just here for me,” he said. “I think they recognize that Blind Brook is a phenomenal place to work. And this team has been amazing and are capable of phenomenal things. My hope is that they are going to stay to continue the work we’ve started, and they’ll keep moving forward.”
He believes the district is a place that requires a mindset of perpetual advancement. It commands faculty and staff who are always moving forward with educational trends.
“Blind Brook has always been a very progressive school district,” Byrne said. “We’re always willing to try something new. Instruction looks a lot different from when I first started here. There was barely a computer network back then and now we have our own Wi-Fi and students have digital devices. One of the questions on our horizon is how to balance that. But Blind Brook has always been the place that tries to come up with those answers.”
Though he has no say about who will replace him, Byrne is optimistic the board will select someone who is forward thinking.
“I hope they find someone who really has a solid vision for moving education forward in the coming years,” he said. “There’s AI, other technologies, and changes of learning practices. We’re all still learning about how students best learn. Ideally, they find someone who can look at what we have now and create a bridge to get us into the next era of teaching.”
Mensch said the Board is not taking the decision lightly.
“My feeling is that the community is very nervous about replacing him,” he said. “The last time the district went through this, it was a bit of a disaster. We’ve been unlucky in some cases or looked in the wrong places. I get why people would be nervous. There’s a lot of pressure to get this right.”
To that end, the board will not rush to fill the shoes Byrne will leave behind at the end of June.
“We’re going to hire a recruitment firm to help us find the right person,” he said. “It’s going to be a very long process. There’s going to be multiple community forums, they’ll talk to board members, administration, staff and parents. We want to get this right.”
The search for the next superintendent won’t pick up steam until January, according to Mensch, but Byrne is more focused on making the most of the time he has left in his position.
“I’m definitely going to miss this,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to work with phenomenal staff and faculty who do amazing things in the classroom every day. Being able to step into a classroom to see the passion and energy of students. That’s going to be hard to walk away from.”
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