Dear Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School District Community,
On Thursday, May 31, 2018, the Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School Committee announced Dr. Heidi T. Riccio as our new Superintendent-Director. Dr. Riccio was selected for many reasons. These reasons include her passion for all aspects of education, her tenacious instructional expertise in CTE areas, and her commitment to provide vocational learning opportunities to students in our member communities. Additionally, Dr. Riccio has proven herself to be a successful leader in her role as a CTE director during her year-long tenure with the District.
Dr. Riccio comes to this position with high recommendations from current staff, faculty, and students. Additionally, Dr. Riccio is highly regarded by her previous mentoring Superintendents, community members, and colleagues where she worked tirelessly on numerous initiatives and projects.
Dr. Riccio began her career in the hospitality industry as a sales manager for the Marriott Corporation. In 1997, she started her career in vocational-technical education teaching hospitality at Greater Lawrence Technical School. Dr. Riccio advanced her career at GLTS earning a variety of leadership roles including department chairperson, academy supervisor, and CTE Director.
In 2013, she became the Principal/Director of Medford Vocational Technical High School. While there, Dr. Riccio opened 9 new Chapter 74 programs, wrote over $1M in competitive grant funding and worked collaboratively with the comprehensive high school to bring rigorous academic courses to vocational school students. Dr. Riccio also offered CTE courses to traditional high school students. During her time in Medford, Dr. Riccio has been actively involved in community-based projects, adult education programming, increased enrollment for incoming ninth grade students, and began a partnership with the City of Everett to provide vocational opportunities to their high school students.
Dr. Riccio has been with Essex North Shore since July 2017 serving as one of the directors for career and technical education programs. During her time here, Dr. Riccio not only has been successful in her role as a CTE director, but she also extended her leadership to improving many school programs such as safety, competitive grant funding, preparing to open new programs, advancements and enhancements to the curricula, efforts in school branding and social media outlets, and opening additional community programs such as the school farm stand.
With regard to Dr. Riccio’s passion for a long-term commitment to the District, she indicated “I am thankful to the District School Committee for their work and dedication to the search process. Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School offer great opportunities for students. I am happy to be a part of the team that will bring this District to its maximum potential.” Dr. Riccio further went on to say, “ The next few weeks will be spent developing a transition plan with Dr. Lupini and I am appreciative of his leadership. I look forward to working collaboratively with Shannon Donnelly, our interim principal, along with the entire leadership team and dedicated staff to achieve a common district-wide vision.”
Dr. Riccio has a Doctorate in Education from Nova Southeastern University, a CAGS in Educational Leadership from Salem State University, a Master’s degree in Occupational Education from Fitchburg State University; and a Bachelor’s degree in Hospitality Sales and Meeting Management from Johnson & Wales University. In addition, Heidi is a member of ASCD, MAVA, and ACTE.
Dr. Riccio is married with three children; Ceili, 21, Maggie, 18, and Meaghan, 15. She grew up in Lawrence but has resided in Salisbury, MA since 1995.
On behalf of the School Committee, I want to thank the entire school community for their commitment and dedication to the search process for finding our next Superintendent-Director of Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical School District.
Melissa Teixeira
Chairwomen
Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School Committee
