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08/24/2016 08:30 AMOn Tuesday, Sept. 6, about 3,000 students will ring in the 2016-’17 school year in Madison. Tom Scarice, superintendent of Madison Public Schools, is eager to welcome students back to school.
“We’re just excited to welcome the kids back,” says Tom. “As much as summer is enjoyed by all—parents, students, teachers, and administrators—you get ready this time of the year, you get kind of amped up to start the year.”
Tom was hired as superintendent 4 ½ years ago after serving as assistant superintendent in Weston. Tom has been in the education field for 20 years, working his way from a teacher to an assistant principal to a principal to assistant superintendent to superintendent.
While he has loved each step of his career, Tom originally had no idea he wanted to go into the education field. For the first two years at the University of Connecticut, Tom was studying political science with a goal of moving on to law school.
“I was in my junior year of college when I helped a friend, who was coaching a Little League baseball team,” says Tom, who grew up in North Haven. “That experience coaching those eight-year-olds forever changed me. It was something I loved to do.”
After that experience, Tom switched his major to psychology and went on to earn his master’s from Southern Connecticut State University. Even though he moved quickly into a leadership role, Tom still tries to spend as much time as he can in the classrooms.
“I love the work at the ground level in the buildings and in the classrooms working with the teachers and students,” says Tom. “I try to make it a point to be in the classrooms at least three or four times a week. That’s where the real work is happening.”
When Tom was hired in Madison, he was most excited about the “innovative, progressive” work that the district was doing. He recalls his education growing up, describing it as “passive” learning. The Madison school district has a focus on high levels of student engagement.
“This community has embraced an educational vision that goes well beyond other districts. This is a community with a lot of pride in our schools and that’s important to me,” says Tom. “We want our students interested and invested so they can take what they’re learning and apply to real-world problems. They’re not just accumulating knowledge, they’re actively thinking and engaging in work.”
Another thing Tom stresses is that the district’s curriculum is preparing students for is the world they will enter after graduating high school.
“I’m so proud of the way this community has embraced [the concept] that the way we’ve been educating kids for past few decades is not sufficient to prepare them for the future,” says Tom. “They’re walking into a world of automation and robots and machines and we’re in the process of making our kids prepared for that world. That is one thing among many that separate this district across the country.”
Tom plans to move his family to town in the near future. His wife Kerry also has an education background—she was a teacher for 10 years. The couple has three children: Ella, who is going into 7th grade; Owen, who is going into 5th grade; and Gavin, who is going into 3rd grade.
“There couldn’t be a stronger show of support for your district than sending your own kids there,” says Tom, who has been commuting from Cheshire. “I can talk about the bigger issues in education and the challenges of public education and Kerry is able to relate to it, but I make it a point not to bring my work home and separate the work I do from my family.”
Tom and his family have spent a lot of time on the Madison beaches over the summer. Outside of work and spending time with family, Tom enjoys reading, running, and exercising. He also coaches his sons’ baseball teams.
“With three young kids, downtime is a scarce commodity, but I’m an avid reader and I love to run and exercise,” says Tom. “We’ve had a blast at the Madison beaches this summer—it’s been great. I remember telling my wife when we started having kids, I wanted to be able to make time for coaching.”
Tom is looking forward to getting more involved with sports in town and hopes to continue coaching his sons. He has taken his sons to see the high school teams play baseball, basketball, and football. Tom has also enjoyed the music and theater productions put on by the schools.
“My boys love to watch the Hand Tigers compete,” says Tom. “We have a strong arts community in Madison so to be able to attend and see the performances of kids and the adults who help is mind-blowing.”
Tom has enjoyed getting to know the nearly 300 teachers throughout the district over the past years. In addition to building relationships with the staff and students at the school, Tom has also worked to build relationships in the community with merchants, Youth & Family Services, the library, and other groups.
“I was so warmly embraced when I was hired—I’m a people person, a face-to-face person,” says Tom. “In this size school district, I can get to know so many people on a first-name basis. [Working with groups in town] has helped when we’ve had problems to solve or ideas to incubate.”
Heading into a brand new school year, Tom notes there aren’t any big changes, but more “staying the course” toward the district’s vision.
“I don’t believe in these flashy initiatives. We’re doing really good work in the classroom and letting the work speak for itself,” says Tom. “We’re teaching the kids to think deeply, think critically, and that is done with a master teacher and kids that mom and dad send in ready to learn.”