As Superintendent of Schools Patricia McGeehan begins to guide the Bayonne School District for what is likely the last two years of her city educational career, the Bayonne Community News caught up with her last Friday to talk about career, family, and her plans for the future.
The superintendent began the conversation by noting the myriad decisions she must make in any given day, including ones as basic as whether or not to keep school open.
With the snow season upon us, McGeehan said that making the call to keep thousands of students out of school on a given day is a decision that weighs heavily on her each time. Not only does it affect the students and their parents or caretakers, but also more than 800 teachers and 600 other employees, as the school district is the city’s biggest employer.
Though born in Jersey City, McGeehan’s family moved to Bayonne when she was 5 years old. She graduated from the Academy of Saint Aloysius in Jersey City.
McGeehan was not headed for a career in education. She graduated from the College of Saint Elizabeth in Convent Station with a BA in Economics and a minor in accounting. At Saint Elizabeth, she found an interesting coincidence. While studying there, she discovered that her dormitory room was occupied years before by a young Bayonne woman who would become world famous: Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, now on the path to becoming a saint.
After graduating from St. Elizabeth, she finished her education at Seton Hall University in South Orange, receiving her Masters in Elementary Education, two administrator certificates, and her Doctorate in Education/Administration.
While McGeehan’s parents were city restaurateurs, with neither completing high school, they understood the need for a good education and encouraged Patricia and her siblings to achieve all they could academically. For that she will always be indebted to them.
“Mom and dad cherished education,” she said. “Education to them was the very best – because neither one of them had it.”
In fact, even ahead of her educational accomplishments, McGeehan is first and foremost a family woman, reveling most in successfully raising three children and enjoying her ten grandchildren.
“I love it; it’s wonderful,” McGeehan said of being a grandparent. “They energize you too. They’re very proud of me. I love to tell them their stories.”
Two things that keep her family life from being complete are the loss of her husband, Vincent, 22 years ago to a progressive, degenerative disease, and the death of her sister, Maureen (Mickey) McLaughlin, an English teacher at Henry Harris School. A reading garden at the school was dedicated to her memory.
A lot on her plate
For 14-plus years, McGeehan has overseen a school district with greatly changing demographics and more and more government-mandated programs. She has presided over changes in curriculum instruction and teacher evaluations, the instituting of bullying-prevention programs, and the advent of new teaching technology. She has also had to think out of the box for new initiatives, like Bayonne’s Latin & Arabic Family Program, to make sure not only all the students – but their parents as well – are in tune with what is being taught in the schools.
McGeehan takes great pride in the large number of varied partnerships she has forged for the betterment of the students in her district. These partnerships include not only businesses, such as IMTT, CarePoint Health, PSE&G, and Bayonne Community Bank, New York Community and Provident banks, but also higher-learning institutions, such as Stevens and New Jersey institutes of technology and New Jersey City University.
Other groups include the Simpson-Baber Foundation for the Autistic, Unico, Rotary Club, Bayonne Education Foundation, and Concerned Citizens of Bayonne, as well as the police and fire departments and veterans groups.
One of the decisions she points to as most important under her tenure was the institution of school uniforms. McGeehan feels that it put all students on a level playing field.
A-plus for art and academics
A major initiative implemented under her watch was the formation of the Academy of Fine Arts & Academics at Bayonne High School. The new center features several areas of learning broken down into tracks. The performing arts unit was opened two years ago, the science and technology track last year, and the high school is readying the professional studies track for the next school year.
McGeehan’s background in economics and accounting has stood her well in her career as an educator. While Elizabeth High School’s higher academy learning sites were a model for the academy, the Bayonne district could not afford to construct separate buildings. McGeehan opted instead to build a “school within a school,” using board of education staff whenever possible and contractors as little as possible.
McGeehan’s dream has been realized in the form of an academy that can now compete with schools such as High Tech High School in North Bergen, which, until now, had brain-drained many gifted Bayonne high school-aged students.
Though she has been involved in education for decades, McGeehan has the energy of someone years younger. She attends school events all over the city, whether it is a holiday tree lighting at Henry Harris School, a book reading at Mary J. Donohue School, or the district-wide spelling bee at the Dr. Walter F. Robinson School.
She also has monthly face-to-face meetings with her principals.
At her desk at 7 or 7:30 a.m. each morning, she departs most days at 9 p.m., or even later.
Over the next two years, McGeehan will be challenged by the complex needs of today’s students, including the growth of Bayonne’s English as a second language curriculum and the increase in students in need of the district’s free-and-reduced-lunch program.
While many superintendents guide a school system in one town, but live in another, McGeehan has not taken that route. She lives here in Bayonne, within a short walking distance of her office at Bayonne High School, tucked away on a quiet street near Newark Bay.
McGeehan hasn’t given thought to what her next career or focus in life will be when her new contract expires in two years should she not sign a new one. She’s just concentrating on the Bayonne School District for now, and what steps she can take to improve it.
The opening of the third and final academy sector, for professional studies, including business and marketing, will be a major initiative. McGeehan also hopes to update many of the district schools’ physical plants. Another initiative she is greatly looking forward to is the partnership with NJCU.
“That’s going to be great opportunity for the kids,” she said.
Joseph Passantino may be reached at JoePass@hudsonreporter.com.