Sandy Hook School's Assistant Principal Named to Top Post at Head O' Meadow

Barbara Gasparine, a Woodbridge resident who has served as assistant principal at Sandy Hook School for the past three years, has been appointed principal of Head O'Meadow School following Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting.

After a brief interview, education board members voted during a meeting at the Municipal Center to appoint Gasparine to the post vacated by Bill Bircher, whom school officials said retired.

In addition to her experience as assistant principal of Sandy Hook School, Gasparine worked in North Branford as district facilitator for language arts and lead teacher and language arts consultant at Jerome Harrison School.

Before North Branford, she was a reading tutor and later a language arts consultant and coordinator for Beecher Road School in Woodbridge. Gasparine also has worked as a preschool teacher at the Cabbage Nursery School in Woodbridge and second grade teacher at Point Beach School in Milford.

She has a bachelor's degree in elementary education, master's degree in reading from the University of Bridgeport and advanced training and certification from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

Among her references, former Sandy Hook School principal Donna Pagé ranked Gasparine among the top 5-percent of educational leaders Pagé has worked with in 20 years as a principal.

"If you are looking for an educator capable of moving your school and district forward, look no further," Pagé said in a letter of recommendation for Gasparine. "Our schools and children need her."

Bircher had been in education for more than 40 years, starting in the district in 1984 as the principal of Middle Gate School and later moving to Head O' Meadow, officials said.

When Bircher, who could not be reached for comment, decided he would retire, he did not want it to be accompanied by any fanfare, district officials said.

"He is a private man and he wanted to go out very privately," Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson said during the education board meeting. "I just wanted to say I hope he enjoys retirement."

Robinson said in an interview that she had been in communication with Bircher as he settled on the decision to retire, so she did not view it as a sudden departure. She said she enjoyed a good working relationship with Bircher.

"Bill and I shared a sense of humor," Robinson said, adding the reason he left abruptly and without advanced notice was solely due to his personal wishes.

"Bill as a person does not like a big deal made about him," she said.

Colleagues and people who knew Bircher said the news of his retirement took them by surprise, but that they also would not expected him to reach out to them in advance, echoing what Robinson said about Bircher valuing his privacy.