Ed Spence, a champion of Chester’s tech advancement, retires

After 13 years with the Chester Union Free School District, Ed Spence, the school district’s director of technology and data management, is retiring. Spence recently reflected on his roughly 30 years in the education sector, and the friends he’s made along the way.

He wasn’t always an educator. Spence decided to change professions after 10 years with the tech company, after it kept downsizing. “I went to school at night while I was working full time. I got my teaching degree and then when my job at IBM ended, I started student teaching, so it all worked out perfectly.” He ending up becoming certified as a social studies teacher.

There was just one problem: while he loved teaching social studies, he soon discovered that such teaching positions weren’t in demand. And the people he spoke with were more interested in his IBM background than his subject of choice.

“I kept going on job interviews and they were pointing to my technology background,” he explained. “I was being offered jobs to teach computers in the early 90s [when] they were just starting to teach computer classes, so when I started teaching, I created a whole computer curriculum. There was nothing like that in place so I just kind of made one on my own.”

That tech background not only helped Spence find a good teaching position, it also helped to boost Chester’s technology offerings and influenced the ways several Orange County schools taught.

When Spence came to the school district in 2011, it didn’t have any WiFi or laptops for students. But about a year later, he and then-Chester Academy Principal Leslie Hyatt teamed up to help bring Chromebooks to the district, a feat Spence marks as one of his proudest accomplishments while at Chester schools. Chester then became the first district in the Hudson Valley to have a take-home Chromebook instructional plan. That big technological advancement earned them the 2014 NYSSBA Innovative Schools award, and inspired several other area schools to follow suit and seek out their advice, including big school districts like Middletown and Newburgh.

“It was very funny because, then when I went to my Orange County tech directors meeting, every tech director in the room said, ‘Thank you, Mr. Spence, now all our superintendents want to do the same thing!’” he said with a laugh.

He also noted a key to the Chromebook integration: the trust they had built with the teaching staff.

“We didn’t mandate it. We started, you know, with a couple grades at a time and we built that trust and support,” he said.

“Chester has the best teachers in the world!” he said. “Chester is a small school environment. I’ve worked in bigger schools, I’ve worked in smaller schools, and Chester is the perfect size to really educate the children and still know everybody who’s in the building ... Just the right fit [with] the number of students and the student-to-teacher ratio.”

When asked to note any other standout moments in his time at Chester, Spence said, “There’s too many to number!” He also noted the outpouring of support he’s received from teachers and staff over the last few weeks, despite them being incredibly busy wrapping up the school year. “For so many teachers to stop what they’re doing and come over and shake my hand and say ‘thank you, we’re going to miss you,’ you know, that’s genuine. There’s no reason for them to do that if it wasn’t real and authentic, so I really appreciate the partnerships.”

Spence further expressed thanks to Leslie Hyatt, the Chester school board, and former CUFSD Superintendent Sean Michel for hiring him.

While his time at Chester has come to an end, Spence says he’s not completely out of the education sector. He will still teach summer classes at SUNY New Paltz. He also sits on the Hyde Park School Board and serves as the Dutchess County School Boards Association president. Of course, he still looks forward to a well-deserved retirement, and plans to travel with his wife, a retired Regents earth science teacher of 30 years, and spend time with his seven granddaughters. The couple has also adopted several special needs children together.

“I went to work when I was 16 at McDonald’s and I’ve never been out of work,” he added. “It’s been 40 years and I’m very thankful for that. We’re going to take some time this summer and then just reevaluate.”

Spence also gave some advice for the next general of tech directors and teachers: “Every kid is different. The kids that’s in your classroom might have a behavioral problem, but you don’t know the history of that kid. There’s a lot of kids who are coming out of foster care, a lot of kids who’ve been through horrible situations. So my message teacher is always ... try to get to know what’s really the story with this child.”

As a fitting sendoff he also added, “Go Hambos!”