Bocaccio says DHS will forever be in his heart
November 3, 2015
Just about every morning of the school week, Principal Gary Bocaccio can be seen greeting students stepping from the busses.
At 7:20, he can be heard over the PA as he leads the student body and staff in the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence.
During pass, he can be seen and heard as he stands outside the main office saying hello to students or quickly admonishing them for wearing a hat.
Then at 2 p.m. he’s back outside, saying goodbye to students as they board their busses for home.
Come June, however, Bocaccio will wrap up his five years of providing structure and stability to a high school that was in desperate need of both after sustaining one leadership change after another. The school board last week named Freshman Academy Principal Dan Donovan as DHS’s new principal once Bocaccio steps down.
At the end of last year, Bocaccio announced that the 2015-16 school year would be his final year as principal of one of the largest and diverse high schools in Connecticut. While five years may not seem like the longest time, Bocaccio has been a part of Danbury Public Schools System for 42 years.
“I wanted to make a decision early enough to give the school district sufficient time to find an excellent replacement so that’s why I made the decision at the end of last year,” Bocaccio said. “Now as the time approaches it’s almost scary in some ways. This is all I’ve known my whole life.”
Bocaccio, a 1970 DHS graduate, describes his career as eclectic.
“I’ve taught every grade from grade 5 all the way up through college and when I did my student teaching, it was with a second-grade class,” Bocaccio said.
Before transferring to DHS, Bocaccio taught mathematics at Rogers Park Middle School for four years, and fifth and sixth grade at Mill Ridge Intermediate for five years.
He started at DHS as what was known then as an administrative assistant. He taught mathematics and ran a students at-risk program. Before the Board of Education tapped him as principal, he was the longtime Level 3 assistant principal who gained a reputation as a no-nonsense but fair disciplinarian. He also was not above playing pranks on colleagues to break up the day.
“There was never anything mean or malicious in any pranks that were pulled. He made you laugh and reminded you that this is a great place to be and sometimes when the job gets frustrating you need to not take yourself so seriously,” said Assistant Principal Michael Clarke, who has worked with Bocaccio for 25 years. “Whatever the pranks were, it was to remind us that we got a good gig here that we’re working with kids.”
Bocaccio said he would not change a minute of his career.
“I’ve had a very diverse career but it’s been exciting; it’s been challenging, and I couldn’t ask for more,” Bocaccio said. “I just felt five years ago that it was time for me to step up.”
Bocaccio’s tenure has been the first to offer DHS stability since John Goetz held the position from 1994-2003. After Goetz’ departure, the district went through four DHS principals — John Murphy, Catherine Richards, Karen Rezendez and Robert Rossi — before looking to Bocaccio.
“My initial goal was to bring trust and transparency back to the seat, where people would believe in us and trust us,” Bocaccio said. “My goal was to let everyone in this community and around the state know just how good we were.”
Superintendent Salvatore Pascarella said he knew he had to find a candidate who he could count on staying. Bocaccio signed a two-year contract, but Pascarella talked him into extending it through 2016.
“This is my ninth year and between interims and other principals I may have had five principals,” Pascarella said. “Mr. Bocaccio has brought great stability. He’s well known in the district, so I think it’s meant a lot to have him there for as many years as we’ve had. You could see how the school has been moving forward and he was the right person at the right time.”
Aside from bringing stability to the school, Bocaccio feels that DHS has improved in every aspect from when he was a student.
“I think every single year we get better and better,” Bocaccio said. “When I compare it to myself being a student here back in the late 1960s and 1970s, we are a far better school than we were then.”
Evidently it is both the students and staff that have framed a finer high school. Over the years, standardized test scores have gone up, the failure rate has decreased, and the attendance rate has increased.
Along with those changes, the environment at DHS has also improved. The school, he said, has become much more compassionate and caring toward students, and the teaching methodologies has changed.
“ I see a lot of positive things that have happened and continue to happen and that’s really because of the work that the staff has done,” Bocaccio said. “I can’t take credit for that but I give 100 percent credit to our entire staff and all of the administrators who have been truly dedicated to making DHS the best that it can be.”
Also, there have been tough times that Bocaccio has had to deal with, such as the Sandy Hook shootings and the fallout with increased lockdowns and security measures, the implementation of the district’s controversial teacher evaluation system that has lowered morale, and having to say goodbye to faculty and students who had passed away.
Even then, though, he tries to find the positive.
“Unfortunately, sometime tragedies come about in the school. To see the unity, to see the caring, to see the compassion of both the staff and the students is always refreshing and is always heartwarming,” Bocaccio said. “There have been a lot of memories that have touched my heart and a lot of personal conversations with students and with staff that have been so rewarding.”
This past June was a bittersweet moment for Bocaccio as he shook hands, hugged and glad-handed the Class of 2015 on Graduation Day. He was the first principal since Goetz to see a class through to its graduation.
“It brought tears in my eyes because I was able to see the growth and the transformation of people that came in as youngsters at 14 years of age, very immature, not sure about direction,” he recalled. “I saw people that had matured tremendously, that had a focus, that had a vision for what their future wanted to be, that were really appreciative of the education that they received.”
As for retirement plans however, it is a “curious kind of nature” as Bocaccio doesn’t have anything mapped out.
“My first plan is to take a summer off. I’ve been working for 42 years and I’ve never had a summer in 42 years,” Bocaccio said.
Regardless of his retirement, Bocaccio will always love the school as he has spent more time in it than any of his houses.
“I won’t disappear,” he said. “Danbury High School has always been close to my heart. I’ll be looking in on the school from afar but always checking in and always wanting it to be the great institution that it is.”
Wishing Bocaccio and Donovan well as DHS takes next step
This week we learned that Dan Donovan will become the next principal of DHS in June when Gary Bocaccio steps down after five years in the role.
We applaud this decision by the Board of Education, Superintendent Salvatore Pascarella, and the search committee that recommended Mr. Donovan.
This will help in so many ways bring about a smooth transition. Mr. Donovan and Mr. Bocaccio have worked together for many years now.
As you can see by our front page and this page, we are using this issue to reflect on Mr. Bocaccio’s tenure.
It’s important to give him the props he deserves. We know that dealing with 3,000 students of diverse backgrounds and experiences is tough. Teens are not easy, we admit that ourselves. He’s also had to work with about 200 teachers, all who bring different experience, approaches and values to the classroom. Trying to get them all on the same page can’t be easy.
But he has stressed to us that we are a community of learners, as the sign says, and we feel he has tried his best to bring all of us together.
Yes, we can get tired of his lectures over the PA about electronics, earbuds and hats. We even see him just about every day standing outside his office to either say hello or to admonish those who violate the rules. It’s not uncommon to see him motion a student over during pass to say for the umpteenth time something like, “Take off your hat. Why do I have to keep saying this to you? Do I need to call your mother and get her down here? Take responsibility for yourself.”
We understand, however begrudgingly as we teens like to do, that his attention to the small things helps to keep the bigger discipline problems at bay.
And we can always count on Mr. Bocaccio coming by during Advisory to say hello and to wish us well. He does so the first day of school and before all the holidays. It’s nice, and we appreciate that he takes the time to walk from classroom to classroom to say hi.
We take this space to applaud his efforts, to thank him for his service to this school. He’s been here forever, it seems. He told Editor-in-Chief Mihir Sood he’s probably spent more time inside and around DHS than in all of his homes over the years. You have to appreciate that kind of dedication to the students and faculty.
And while we snap a salute to Mr. Bocaccio, we want to also wish Mr. Donovan well. We all know Mr. Donovan because we all went through the Freshman Academy, where he is the principal up on D4.
He has paid his dues for the principal’s position. First, and we know the teachers appreciate this, is that he’s not far removed from the classroom. He was a 5th grade teacher at Roberts Avenue and then a 7th grade science teacher at Broadview. When we went through the Academy, you could tell that our teachers enjoyed working with him.
Mr. Donovan also served as varsity football coach and athletics director. He has really made his mark, however, in the academy. This year alone he is watching over two initiatives that he helped bring here — DECO, which gives freshmen the opportunity to work toward a college associate’s degree while also earning a DHS diploma, and the Read 180 program to help freshmen achieve grade-level reading skills.
After writing this, we realize this is kind of a bittersweet moment. Bitter in that we have to say goodbye to Mr. Bocaccio; sweet in that we are celebrating Mr. Donovan’s promotion.
We sincerely wish them the best of luck.