Plum superintendent Naccarati to retire
By Zak Koeske
"Love what you do. If you don't love it, you won't be able to sustain the high level of commitment necessary to do the job well."
Those are Plum superintendent Lillian Naccarati's words of advice to her eventual successor.
Ms. Naccarati, a longtime educator and Plum resident, announced her retirement at the school board meeting earlier this month, effective Dec. 31. The district has yet to begin the search for a replacement.
"I made a very difficult decision," said Ms. Naccarati, who accepted an early retirement incentive package with several years left on her contract. "It was rather bittersweet for me because I love what I do. There's not a day that I don't enjoy coming to work and fulfilling my responsibilities to our school community."
Her retirement package, like the ones accepted by 23 district teachers, pays out $1,000 per month for the next 36 months.
Ms. Naccarati, who worked in the Woodland Hills, Gateway and East Allegheny school districts before coming to Plum in 1992, said she always wanted to be a teacher.
"My older sister always 'played school,' " she said, "and I was one of the students. I loved that experience with her, and as I went through high school and it was time to make a decision regarding the career path I would take at the university, it was very apparent that my heart and my soul were in teaching."
Since 1992, Ms. Naccarati has served as principal of Plum's Regency Park and Pivik elementaries, district director of pupil personnel, assistant superintendent, and since 2008, has led the school district.
"My philosophy has always been 'students first' as both a teacher and as an administrator," she said. "So that if every decision was made from that perspective, I always had confidence in the fact that it was the right decision."
Ms. Naccarati, who said she misses teaching, was encouraged early on by colleagues to make the jump from teaching into administration because she naturally assumed leadership roles wherever she worked.
"I have always missed the fact that I don't have direct day-to-day contact with the students," she said. "But I also always felt that I could make a greater contribution as I moved up through the ranks of administration."
Ms. Naccarati said she was most proud of achieving districtwide Middle States accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educational attainment through peer evaluation.
Through the Association's Accreditation for Growth protocol, each grade level within each building analyzes student achievement data to form a grade- and building-level-specific education action plan, Ms. Naccarati said.
"It gave us the opportunity to look at the district in such a way that all of our programs and courses of study supported one another. It gave us the opportunity to coordinate district programming as well as collaborate relative to our strengths and give us a vehicle to address our weaknesses."
The results of the program, Ms. Naccarati said, are apparent in the district's elementary school PSSA scores. She also associates the district's high elementary standardized test marks to the full-day kindergarten program and the implementation of professional learning communities where teachers and administrators collaborate to address student achievement.
Ms. Naccarati, who will retain her superintendent role for the first semester of next school year before passing the reins at the change in calendar, said she would formally address the school community regarding her retirement at her last board meeting in December.
In her retirement, Ms. Naccarati said she looked forward to spending more time with her family. Because she has five grandchildren who all attend Plum schools, she fully intends to remain active and involved in the school community.