In case you missed the news, long time LAPDA employee Patti Coultas has accepted a new position and will be leaving LAPDA on August 1, 2008. Patti has accepted a position as Adult Education Coordinator at GMTCC in Hyde Park. While I am happy for her that she secured a good job much closer to her home, I am going to miss her and those in the LAPDA community will miss her as well. Her shoes will be big shoes to fill.

As you can imagine, we are all very busy providing our summer training but I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to “mark the moment” and publicly thank Patti for all she has done for LAPDA and all she has done for me over these past twelve years. Patti joined the LAPDA staff in 1996 and she became Program Coordinator in 2000. From her first days at LAPDA, Patti has helped me take my vision of a Professional Development Academy (PDA) to new heights. When we first started back in 1995 we initially served three Lamoille Area school districts and the regional office of the Agency of Human Services. With Patti’s help, we took that good idea to scale and we became a non-profit corporation that now serves as the Educational Service Agency (ESA) providing high quality professional development for the greater Winooski Valley.

The point that I want to underscore is that Patti has been instrumental in the growth and the success of LAPDA for more than a decade. These days organizations consider themselves fortunate if they can hire and retain a good employee for two or three years. I have had the pleasure and privilege to work with Patti for almost a “bakers dozen”. Besides being loyal, she has been pretty “darn good” at what she does.

If you will pardon the baseball metaphor, you need to know that Patti Coultas has played several positions on the LAPDA team. She is what you might call the perfect utility infielder as well as the starting catcher for a one pitcher staff. Back in our “early days” in the minors, she served as secretary, bookkeeper, webmaster, marketing manager, office manager and my main sounding board. If I am thought of as LAPDA’s starting pitcher, then she has been my first string catcher extraordinaire. Max Depree wrote a great little book entitled Leadership is an Art. If you pick up the book, read the chapter “Theory Fastball”. It will give you great insight into the reciprocal nature of leadership and it will give you a much better idea of why I am going to miss her so much.

Thank you Patti, you helped me create my field of dreams.