Dedication. Commitment. Excellence. Honor.
These are the words that Superintendent Les G. Loomis has espoused over the past 21 years, and in the process, the words he has come to embody and instill into the very spirit of the Bethlehem Central School District.
After a lifetime of transforming his love of learning into a love of teaching, and eventually to a love of leading, Loomis is ready to pass the torch in Bethlehem and start a new chapter of his life in Cape Cod.
In an area where superintendents seem to move on after three, four or five years, Loomis has weathered the political and economic climates of the past two decades in the Capital District with a style and grace unrivaled in terms of leadership, compassion, and know-how.
His colleagues will be the first to tell you that Loomis is a favorite target of criticism, and although his leadership is frequently praised, his decisions are not always met with the enthusiasm of a homecoming parade. More often than not, it seems it’s more like the type of enthusiasm that includes pitchforks and torches.
Loomis is best known in the community for standing by the decisions he thinks are right for the district and also for standing by his staff as those decisions are implemented. A talented and passionate some would also say lengthy orator, Loomis is quick to lavish praise where he finds excellence and just as quick to point out mediocrity when it’s discovered.
The love of teaching that lured him into his life’s work was revealed in the most unlikely of places: Columbia.
`I was in the Peace Corps in Columbia and I started teaching there, actually two Columbian street kids in a reform school, and I loved teaching so that was the beginning of my career in education,` Loomis said.
It was Loomis’ political views that landed him in Columbia in the first place. Like many in his generation, the superintendent was opposed to the Vietnam War and decided to join the Peace Corps in order to avoid being drafted.
A decision he is glad to have made.
`I graduated from college and I went for a year of graduate school at the Harvard Business School in the MBA program, and I was going to get drafted and sent to Vietnam,` Loomis said. `I strongly disagreed with the war in Vietnam so I entered the Peace Corps and that’s how it all began.`
Loomis said the experience changed his life.
`The Peace Corps was unbelievable, not only did I start out teaching but I had a chance to come to know so many Columbian people, I feel like Columbia has become a second country for me. I ended up staying in Columbia for a total of four years.`
He also traveled throughout Mexico, Central and South America while in the Peace Corps.
Loomis landed his first teaching gig not too far from where he grew up, in the Rochester City School District. Working with a diverse student body, Loomis said it was a bit different than a suburban district, but described it as `an outstanding district.`
`I taught at East High School, which was a very diverse student body. I loved the kids, they didn’t have the same advantages that the Brighton kids had, Brighton is a school district just like BC,` Loomis said, but added there were similarities, too, saying, `In both places kids are very much the same, because I think I there are a lot of similarities among people and both places the kids needed good teaching.`
After three years of teaching in Rochester, Loomis decided to head back to Harvard to complete his MBA after being away for seven years. He then went on to get his doctoral degree in educational administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
He then served three years as an assistant high school principal in Ridgefield Conn., where Loomis married his wife; then three-and-a-half years as a principal in a district outside of Syracuse; two-and-a-half years as an assistant superintendent in Andover, Mass.
`And then 21 years here,` Loomis said.
And in those 21 years, Bethlehem has grown and education has evolved.
`The district has grown by about 40 percent in terms of student enrollment, so we had to expand the schools and expand the staff,` Loomis said. `Students are arriving with more needs, there is a greater population who come less ready to learn and there’s a higher percentage of our population that are students with special needs. So we have really had to stretch to meet the needs of our student body, and that’s a big change.`
Other major changes in the district include all of the new state and national testing, resulting in a heightened responsibility for the district. Loomis said that he doesn’t agree with all of the state’s standardized testing but that it has caused district’s to `really step it up` and have higher expectations from its students.
As for the changes in technology, Loomis joked, `We didn’t have any.`
The superintendent said that technology would continue to become an increasing element in the classroom and in student’s lives.
Loomis said the district has been placed in very competent and capable hands by naming Michael Tebbano, former assistant superintendent, as the district’s new superintendent.
When asked if he was going maintain a residence in Bethlehem, Loomis responded with a grin, `Nope, I’m gonna clear right out.`
Loomis emphasized the importance of needing new leadership for the district after a 20-year plus tenure, another point that his colleagues say is a prime example of his leadership skills.
`Les Loomis has been an outstanding leader at BC for 21 years. I had the privilege of working for, and with, him for nearly seven of those years. In my 40 years in the profession, Les is clearly the finest and most capable leader I have encountered,` said John McGuire, current Guilderland Central School District superintendent and former Bethlehem assistant superintendent. `He is a model of what a superintendent of schools should be; the gold standard. Les’s contributions will transcend his own career.`
What is the first thing Loomis is going to do when he gets to the Cape?
`I’m hitting the beach,` he said.“