Nicosia hands in retirement notice

After 19 years on the job, School District 6 superintendent Michael Nicosia has handed in his retirement notice — but he won’t necessarily be leaving.

The school board unanimously accepted his retirement notice on April 29, voiding a three-year contract he had. But talks have been in the works for several months now that would allow Nicosia, who is 65, to continue in his current position with a significant cost reduction to the school district.

According to Nicosia, when his retirement becomes effective June 30, he plans to take 30 days off traveling to Missoula and Idaho for track and volleyball camps with his two daughters.

After a 30-day break in service, Nicosia can return to work while collecting his retirement. He has offered to continue his full-time work as school superintendent for another year at one-third of his current salary.

The details of Nicosia’s offer have yet to be worked out to comply with state law. The school board will vote on the offer in July, after his current term of employment ends.

“This is a good deal for me and the school district,” he said. “It will really help with the school budget when times are tight. There are pluses here.”

Nicosia has the second longest tenure of all school superintendents in Montana. When combined with his predecessor, Ryan Taylor, School District 6 has seen two superintendents over the past 30 years.

“Not many school districts have this level of tenure,” he said.

Nicosia said he’s not the type of guy who counts his accomplishments as they happen.

“When one thing ends, the next starts,” he said. “When the junior high school bond passed, I didn’t stop to celebrate — I moved on.”

The school district talked about building a new junior high school for 20 years after an earlier bond vote failed. A second try succeeded, and the much appreciated school was built in 2001.

“We had a good, comprehensive committee, and things went very smoothly,” he said. “The junior high project came one year after a big fire at the high school that caused $1 million in damage. We got that fixed up right away.”

Nicosia, who was the lead plaintiff in the historic school quality lawsuit against the state in 2002, has an opinion about how he should be judged.

“I’d like to be remembered for the relationships I made and maintained,” he said. “I’ve always been fair and consistent in how I dealt with people.”

He noted that School District 6 has a good reputation and shouldn’t have a problem recruiting good superintendent candidates.