Principal to resign, leaves strong legacy
The Daily Mail

Members of the Coxsackie-Athens school board have accepted the resignation of longtime Edward J. Arthur Elementary School principal Paul Snyder.

Snyder, who has served as the school’s principal for 10 years will retire at the end of July.

He called his resignation bittersweet.

“I’ve enjoyed it here. It’s a great school district,” Snyder told the board.

Snyder said that one of the goals of his administration was to improve the school’s academics. Last year, he said, the school received its best English Language Arts scores in history, and the students had done excellently on science exams as well.

One academic program he instituted at the school moved teachers with their students from first grade to second grade, and from third grade to fourth grade.

He started looping classes in this manner at his previous school, in Livingston Manor, in Columbia County.

Snyder said that although the program was not without its problems he thought it benefited the students and the teachers.

“What I’ve always looked to do was what was best for the kids,” he said.

Fourth grade teacher Darren Dusharm agreed that looping had its up and downs but said that staying with his students for two years rather than just one was helpful.

Snyder said that the majority of parents gave him positive feedback about the program and that he hoped he gave the staff and school a direction in which to go.

However, Snyder said, he also trusted his teachers to provide for their students.

“I try to let the staff do their job,” he said.

Dusharm said he appreciated that Snyder had continued the school’s tradition of holding an assembly every Monday morning and allowed teachers to ease into curriculum changes.

Snyder, who drove to Athens from his home in Mayfield, in Fulton County, every day to work, said that he would miss his students and working with their parents and the school’s Parent Teacher Organization.

Snyder said he would like to see the next principal work towards making renovations on the school building and fixing its boilers, which have failed a few times already this winter.

Snyder plans on spending time this summer with his wife and friends in Maine. He said that as an administrator, he has had to work over the summer, while his wife, a teacher, had a vacation. Next school year, he will have vacation while his wife works, he said.

Debbie Legas, Snyder’s secretary, said that she would miss her boss, who will be remembered by board members as the principal who brought food spreads to meetings held at the school.
She lauded how accessible Snyder has been during his years as principal.

“Any time a parent had a problem or good news, his door was open,” Lagas said.

She said Snyder tried to make his students enjoy school and even dressed up on Halloween. In recent years, Snyder took on the aliases of Winnie the Pooh, Shrek and the Gingerbread Man, and tried to encourage other administrators to celebrate the holiday in similar style.

“Whatever it took to get the kids through the day, Mr. Snyder made sure it happened,” she said.