Ridge View’s Dyer named Maine’s NAESP National Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year

DEXTER —  Ridge View Community School Assistant Principal Jessica Dyer has been chosen as the state’s top elementary assistant administrator. During a presentation on Dec. 3 in the school’s Alfond Gym, Dyer was formally recognized as the 2021 Maine Principals’ Association National Association of Elementary School Principals National Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year.

With Dyer’s parents and family members in the gym and students and staff watching the presentation from their classrooms — the video will be posted at www.aos94.org — SAD 46/AOS 94 Superintendent Kevin Jordan welcomed everyone. 

“We’re happy and although it’s a much smaller crowd than we would have wanted in these COVID times, we’re happy to have you folks here to help us really celebrate a momentous occasion for one of our employees here in SAD 46,” he said before introducing MPA Executive Director Dr. Holly Couturier.

Couturier said most people know the MPA through the governance of high school sports, “but there’s another side to the association and that side works with all of the administrators throughout the entire state of Maine. One of the best parts of my job is I get to go and visit all the schools throughout the entire state and I get to work with all of the incredible principals and assistant principals. 

“One of the roles that I get to have is to be working with a committee every single year to identify the best of the best of the administrators throughout the entire state and for the very first time I would like to publicly announce and recognize Ridge View Community School’s Assistant Principal of the Year!”

“It’s obviously a very much deserved award,” Jordan said. “Anyone who watches Jessica work around here — it’s amazing watching her work with kids on a daily basis is quite phenomenal.”

He said Dyer — who came to Ridge View in 2014 for her first administrative position — has several nicknames, including boss, queen and super hero, “but the one I think I hear the most is the best: she does a phenomenal job for us here in SAD 46 at Ridge View. I think if you ask the kids what their thoughts were I think they would tell you the exact same thing. Jess has an amazing ability to discipline a child but the child still wants to hug her when it’s done, which is an amazing quality of a great administrator.”

The superintendent said Dyer has mentioned the toughest part of returning to school this fall has been not being able to give students a hug. 

Jordan said Dyer greets students out front each morning to wish them a good day and to say goodbye before they head home. “In the recommendation letter I did for Jess, one of the things I notice when I am out front at the end of the day is she’ll tell a student to have a great weekend and the student will look at her and say ‘you too.’ There’s an understood communication there between Jess and her students.”

During remote learning in the spring, Dyer and then Assistant Principal Greg Hughes would be on Facebook Live. “It was received very well by our students and families and they looked forward to those check-ins,” Jordan said. “It’s that type of extra effort that really makes that connection to the community with the students.”

He said last summer Dyer graciously gave up some vacation time to help plan for 2020-21. 

“We’re lucky to have Jess as an employee here in the district and I think the students and staff would certainly agree with me,” Jordan said.

Dyer began her turn at the podium by thanking her family including her parents and husband. 

Her voice briefly cracking with emotion, Dyer also expressed gratitude to “the staff here, I cannot begin to tell you how phenomenal they are and how hard they work.”

She added, “Every teacher and administrator I have ever worked with thank you, I have learned everything that I know from you.”

Getting emotional for another brief moment Dyer said, “Most importantly I thank the students. I love you, I think you all know that.”

“This year since March has been the most challenging time in my career, however the highlight was Sept. 2 on that day we welcomed children back into our building after six long months,” she said. “That morning made every second of hard work and lost sleep worth it. If you ask any educator they will tell they did not want to become a teacher so they could sit in front of a computer screen. We became teachers because we love spending time with children. I always tell people that kids are the best part of my job.”

Dyer said during the award interview process one question was on how students would describe her. Dyer said the youngsters would say she likes sparkling items and would probably admit she is kind of loud, “but then I really think they would add that they know that I love them and I make them feel safe at school. In a rural community further isolated by a global pandemic, the school is the center and the heart of that community. I hope that in the future people will remember my dedication to not only the students and the staff at our school, but the community as a whole. All that is left to say is thank you, thank you, thank you.”

In announcing Dyer’s selection as 2021 Maine’s NAESP National Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year, the MPA said she received this award based on her incredible passion and dedication to her school community, demonstrated by the relationships she builds within and beyond the school building.  Dyer’s work to use social media to stay connected to parents and families during the pandemic helped to maintain a connection to the school. 

“Her leadership and laser focus on advocating, nurturing and sustaining a school culture conducive to student learning and professional growth are the epitome of what we expect of those in the assistant principalship,” Couturier said in the announcement.

Dyer graduated from Keene State College in New Hampshire in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree  in elementary education. She received her Masters of Education in educational leadership from the University of Maine in 2013.

After starting her career in education as a kindergarten teacher at Palmyra Consolidated School in 1997, Dyer taught pre-kindergarten and then first grade at the Hartland Consolidated School from 1998 to 2014.