June 19, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 5 Ramsey DeYoung completing last week in district Bruce W. DeYoung, who is now serving as Ramsey’s interim superintendent of schools, is now completing his last week of work in the district. When he finishes his work day on Friday, June 21, DeYoung will actually be retiring from the district for a second time. The educator retired as Ramsey’s superintendent of schools at the end of 2005, and returned to his former post in the summer of 2012, while the district searched for a permanent replacement for Dr. Roy Montesano. “Bruce has been a tremendous help to this district – and he was when he was here way back when,” Ramsey Board of Education President Anthony Gasparovich said last week. “You don’t know how good great leadership is until you’ve lost it.” Gasparovich added that there could have been several difficulties in the district during the last year, but credited DeYoung with ensuring that everything continued to run smoothly. “He was a constant leader,” Gasparovich said of DeYoung. He had high praise for the educator, noting that he considers few others to be on the same level. Over the last year, DeYoung played an integral role in the school board’s negotiations with the Ramsey Education Association. That process recently ended with a new three-year contract for the teachers and secretarial staff. DeYoung, who acted as facilitator during the negotiations, previously stated that the last two rounds of contract negotiations had taken years and were more contentious. Gasparovich pointed out that DeYoung mentored five new administrators and several other supervisors in the last year alone. The interim superintendent also helped expand the district’s iPad use, which began two years ago at Smith School. Gasparovich pointed out that every eighth grader now has an iPad to use for school work. Next year, every eighth and ninth grader will have one of these devices to use. Ultimately, the plan is to have iPads provided for students in grades 7-12. DeYoung also guided the district through the most recent QSAC state monitoring process. That evaluation resulted in the district receiving ratings (continued on page 17) Bruce DeYoung