GUILDERLAND — “When all is said and done, there is really nothing more rewarding than working on behalf of children,” says Marie Wiles.

Her career in education has spanned nearly four decades; the last 14 years were spent as the superintendent of the Guilderland schools.

Wiles announced this week that she will be retiring at the end of the school year.

“Even the hardest days,” Wiles told The Enterprise this week, “have the priceless payoff of knowing you’re playing a part in changing the trajectory of lives. In a district this size, that’s close to 5,000 lives. I just feel it is honorable, rewarding, good work to do.”

The school board is slated to accept her resignation at its Nov. 19 meeting.

“She has led our district with consummate professionalism, and made a profound impact on the lives of thousands of students across our community and beyond,” said school board President Blanca Gonzalez-Parker in a statement. “During Dr. Wiles’ tenure she has served as an agent for change and is viewed widely as a role model for school leaders.”

Wiles said she timed her announcement so that the board could work with a search consultant in hopes of having a new superintendent selected by April so that Wiles would have some time to work with the new district leader before retiring.

One of her favorite things during her time at Guilderland, Wiles said, was shaking the hands of students at graduation whom she met for the first time at a superintendent’s hearing “because they had made some really bad choices.”

She went on, “Other students who I know for whatever reason, whether academically, behaviorally, or emotionally, struggled mightily in our schools. But they made it across the finish line … That’s a big deal to me.”

Wiles told The Enterprise earlier this year, after she published her book on what Shakespeare could teach school leaders, that a line from Shakespeare she has relied on throughout her life is from “Hamlet”: “To thine own self be true ….”

It’s part of the advice the king’s minister, Polonius, gives to his son, Laertes.

“There’s lots of ways to think about that …,” said Wiles. “I was brought up thinking in the literal way of that, about being honest and acting with integrity, which were values that I got from my parents, neither of whom went to college. And my father never even went to high school.”

Wiles herself not only went to college, earning her undergraduate degree at Temple University, but went on to earn a master’s degree from the University of Albany in secondary English education, and a doctorate at Syracuse University.

After starting her career as an English teacher — with a love of Shakespeare — she served various roles in two different Boards of Cooperative Educational Services before becoming a BOCES district superintendent.

Once she had a baby, Wiles wanted to cut back on travel and became superintendent of the schools in Clinton, near her childhood home, before being named Guilderland’s superintendent.

Looking back

Wiles arrived in Guilderland in 2010 at the twilight of the Great Recession.

“It was really hard to start here when I did,” she said, “because my introduction to this school community was to break the news that, what you’re used to we can’t have anymore because we had multiple years of financial shortfalls that couldn’t be closed in any quick-fix kind of ways …

“It was hard to say, ‘Hi, I’m new here, and here is the list of things we need to cut. So sorry.’”

At the same time, Wiles had to deal with a new state-required way of evaluating teachers based in part on student test scores. “Of all the things I’ve watched come and go over my 36-plus years, that was the most damaging piece of legislation that I can remember,” said Wiles. “It just demoralized teachers.”

She said, “I was new here when the worst of that had to be negotiated and thought through.”

And then in 2020, she had to lead the district through the pandemic with its myriad requirements, forcing students to learn remotely.

“That was just unbelievable for everybody and really upended everything that we know and do here in school …,” she said. “And we’re still, in my mind, recovering from that.”

In the midst of keeping the district on an even keel financially — Guilderland suffered no budget defeats during Wiles’s tenure — and academically, she also launched a number of new initiatives.

Wiles is adamant about saying she cannot take credit for any of it. “Nothing happens just because one person is here,” she said. Rather, she said, progress has been made because of a collective effort.

“I just had the good fortune of being able to support and lead the team,” said Wiles.

This is the same attitude she expressed when she arrived in Guilderland. She told The Enterprise in 2010, “The business of schools is very complex. There’s an emotional component to it. We’re serving people’s children….We’re affecting our world in many ways. People have strong feelings about schools.

“It’s not effective to have one person knowing what is best. You need to make decisions that match the values of the community. You can’t make decisions in a vacuum.”

Looking back at her tenure this week, Wiles said that one of the biggest changes was expanding co-teaching “to better integrate our students with disabilities into the general education program and providing more opportunities to learn together. That’s a journey we’ve been on for 10 years now.”

She called that initiative “a heavy lift” and “a big financial challenge,” which, aside from hiring more teachers, involved training staff.

On a “parallel track” with that is the Unified Sports program that  now includes basketball, bowling, and bocce. Unified teams combine athletes with and without disabilities. “That’s one of my very favorite things that we do here,” Wiles said.

A “sister initiative” is the district’s work with diversity, equity, and inclusion. After George Floyd’s murder, as the nation went through a racial reckoning, several Black Guilderland alumnae talked to Wiles and board members about the district’s shortcomings.

The district then created a post for a DEI director, formed a DEI Committee, and has done work at all levels on the initiative.

“Every single person needs to feel welcomed and affirmed,” said Wiles. “We’re a work in progress, I will be the first to admit but I feel like at least we’re in progress. We’re not in denial.”

Wiles also noted the district didn’t shy away when the state first allocated unlooked-for funding for pre-kindergarten classes. Although Guilderland didn't have space to house the program, “we went out of our way to try to find partners,” said Wiles.

Looking ahead

Wiles also mentioned the Future-Ready Task Force where “50 people came together and did some really excellent work.”

Wiles had presented the idea to make the district’s school buildings ready to meet future learning needs.

A referendum is planned in May on a capital project that will start the future-ready initiative.

Wiles said she is “keenly aware” of the work that lies ahead to get that initiative ready for a May vote.

She also said, A big area will be keeping our momentum and our energy around our work with diversity, equity, and inclusion because that’s the fundamental element of making sure we are serving each and every student, which is, in my mind, the prime mission of the district.”

The Board of Regents, which governs education in New York state, will soon be releasing the recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Commission, which “will open and maybe enhance some of the pathways for students,” said Wiles and I think that will have implications for what we offer, how we offer it.”

She also said that the new superintendent will have to understand the nuances of any changes made to Foundation Aid.

“I worry about staffing shortages going forward and how do we make sure we have enough teachers to teach and leaders to lead,” said Wiles “We’ve begun some grow-your-own initiatives within the district and I think those need to be nurtured and expanded.”

Wiles said, “I see a horizon ahead with lots of new challenges and initiatives and, not so much requirements, but new directions that we’re going to hear from the State Education Department.  I feel like the district could benefit from fresh legs and fresh eyes.”

“We all kind of know when it’s time to pass the baton,” Wiles said. “I just feel like it’s time for me. I’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Wiles will be 62 in June. She told The Enterprise 14 years ago, after the district had had several short-term superintendents, that she’d like to be at the helm long enough to hand her son his diploma.

Her son, Benjamin Wiles, will be graduating this June. He is in a Career Exploration Internship program and wants to become a plumber; “he’s got a gig as a helper with a local plumbing company and he’s very energized by it,” said Wiles.

On a recent school holiday, she said, he showed up for work at 7:15 a.m. and helped install a boiler in an Albany basement. When he got home, he said, “Mom, I need about three hours to tell you everything I did today.”

“He’s very good with his hand; he’s really good at problem-solving … He’s happy. That’s all I really care about,” said Wiles.

Her husband, Timothy Wiles, retired in February as director of the Guilderland Public Library and she is looking forward to spending more time with him.

“Plus, I assume I will dabble in other kinds of educational activities when I retire … I don’t think I can just turn off and not do some kind of work,” she said.

Asked if she might write another book, Wiles said, “I do have another book idea in my head.”

As part of a “parenting in the public eye” series in the American Association of School Administrators magazine, Wiles has written an article that will be published in January.

The editor asked her to write the article after she presented a workshop on the topic, which is similar to how the seed for her book on Shakespeare was planted.

“I was floating the [book] idea with some colleagues from across the country,” said Wiles, “and they’re like, ‘Pick me! Pick me!’”

Wiles said her biggest take-away from writing her first book, on Shakespeare, was “you should always say ‘yes’ to opportunities … If I’d turned down the opportunity to do that 10-minute talk at the conference, this never would have happened.

“So, even though it’s inconvenient or you don’t have time or whatever, when someone gives you an opportunity, say ‘yes’ — because you never know where it will lead.”