STACYVILLE, Maine — After more than 30 years of working as a school superintendent from Fort Kent to Vinalhaven, Richard Lyons found a year of retirement challenging.
So he’s back at it, reentering the workforce as the superintendent of RSU 89, starting on July 1.
“I am looking forward to it,” Lyons said.
The Masardis native’s new role is part-time, three days a week, he said. According to his contract he will be paid $75,000 with no benefits because he has benefits through his retirement.
Lyons is replacing Marie Robinson, who will take over as superintendent of schools in Bangor.
This is not the first time Lyons came out of retirement to serve as superintendent of schools somewhere in the state. In 2015, he retired from RSU 22,after serving Hampden, Newburgh, Winterport and Frankfort for 23 years.
After a one-month separation, he returned to the Hampden district for another five years, as allowed by state law.
Lyons said he is looking forward to working with the two Katahdin School District principals and administration. In 2018, the two Katahdin schools, with about 275 students, broke away from SAD 50, becoming RSU 89.
At the time, Lyons had been a consultant to the district.
“I was with them when they became a district and when they developed a strategic plan,” Lyons said. “I have been working with the school board and Dr. Robinson since then as a consulting mentor.”
The two RSU 89 principals have been in their positions for a very short period of time and one of his priorities is to provide support and mentoring to the administrative team, he said.
Secondly, he wants to develop a relationship with the business manager and human resources while also working with the board of directors and their strategic plan.
Prior to his new role, Lyons was superintendent for Houlton’s RSU 29 for two years where he faced budgetary challenges and having to cut teaching positions.
Among his more exotic experiences, Lyons took the Rockland Ferry, traveling 13 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean to serve RSU 8’s one school and 110 students on Vinalhaven Island once a week. The rest of the week he traveled the unorganized territory from Fort Kent to Kittery as superintendent of the unorganized territories’ schools.
He is a graduate of the University of Maine where he earned a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree in educational administration and certificate of advanced graduate study in superintendency.
He currently lives in Portage Lake.
