Bridget O’Connell is Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year

She communicated with parents, was able to reopen classes and enable extracurricular activities during the continuing pandemic.
Now, Dr. Bridget O’Connell, superintendent of the Palisades School District, has been named the 2022 Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA).
In a Nov. 8 press release, the Harrisburg-based group noted that the award is part of a national program, established 35 years ago by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), whose purpose “is to further inspire exemplary educational leadership, and promote a sense of confidence and pride in the nation’s public schools.”
It further noted that “nominees are evaluated on how each candidate demonstrates leadership for learning, communication skills, professionalism and community involvement.” The state awardee is selected by a PASA panel of school administrators, and thereby becomes eligible for the national version of the award.
Particular areas of O’Connell’s accomplishments that were cited in the release included numerous state and national honors received by individual schools and the district as a whole, many of which are noted on the district website, and which were said in the release “to reflect student achievement, academic recognition, and a focus on the whole child.”

Other accomplishments noted included the establishment of “pathway programs” that allow students to gain real-world experience in career opportunities while they are still in school; the development of effective online learning options “years in advance of the pandemic;” and various extracurricular “initiatives that have served as a model for countless districts statewide and nationally.”
O’Connell establishied effective pandemic communications starting in March, 2020, allowing for safe reopening of daily K-8 classes by September of that year, with the high school following a month later. In addition, her school board praised her leadership a few months later for also allowing for resumption of many extracurricular activities to a far greater extent than neighboring districts.
The release quoted Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department, as saying “Dr. O’Connell is an educational and community leader that truly seeks to understand the complexities of public health, in order to clearly communicate reliable and accurate information, not only to her school district community, but throughout the county.”
Dr. O’Connell earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Lehigh University, and is a graduate of Easton Area High School. The Palisades School Board recently appointed her to a third five-year term as superintendent.

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