Principal retires from Canfield

Dr. Abby Barone, Retires

Video

Dr. Abby Barone - Canfield High School Principal retires after more than 30 years -

Barone has been involved in the Canfield school district for 35 years.

By Jon Moffett

Dr. Abby Barone is graduating from school after more than 50 years.

The longtime Canfield teacher and administrator has been Canfield High School principal since 1998. She will hang up her ruler and close her lesson plan for good July 31.

“Someone once told me I have a surplus of past and a shortage of future, and when you think about it, you wonder where all those years went,” Barone said. “The most important things we have are our health and our time.”

Barone said she’d been thinking about retirement for the past couple of years but made the decision to graduate for good this year. She cited current mayor and former CHS principal William Kay as her inspiration.

“He said, ‘You’re going to wake up some morning, and you’re just gonna know,’” she said. “I don’t know if I ever had this great revelation. I kind of just eased into it.”

Dante Zambrini, superintendent of Canfield Local Schools, said losing a quality administrator in Barone will be difficult.

“It’s bittersweet because she’ll get time to enjoy her family, travel and do other things,” he said. “But

we don’t want her to leave as an administrator.”

The district is in the process of reviewing candidates to fill the position, Zambrini said. He and the board will begin interviewing candidates by next month. He said there are about 45 applicants.

Whoever is chosen for the position will have a strong reputation to uphold. Graduating seniors described Barone as the heart and soul of the school and said her presence will be sorely missed in the district.

“I think the one thing that’s important to note about Dr. Barone is that any time you see her, she’s always positive and always asking you how you’ve been,” said Tommy Johnson, 18. “I remember after basketball games she’d always congratulate us on a big win, and she liked to keep up-to-date with the students and their lives.”

Johnson, who will attend Ohio State University to study business management, said it was comforting to have an authority figure take so much pride in the school.

“She has a lot of Canfield pride, and it’s nice to know that the leader of the school feels so strongly about what she’s doing and who she’s leading,” he said. “It’s good to know we have someone behind us and who will support us.”

Mary Ditullio, 18, will attend Youngstown State University for advertising and public relations. She said Barone would motivate students and encourage them to be the best, which is how she felt about the school.

“She genuinely believes that Canfield is the best,” Ditullio said of Barone.

Though students had grown fond of Barone, her administrative peers also respected and admired her. Zambrini has been in the field for 33 years and has known only two principals at the high school, including Barone. He said Barone is very “child-centered,” and she has made her mark on the school district and the community.

A graduate of YSU, Barone has been involved with Canfield schools since 1974. But her arrival in Canfield was accidental. She and her parents had planned to move to California but stopped in Ohio to visit her ailing grandmother.

“We were just going to stay for a little bit until she felt better,” she said. “Well, she never really felt better, and we never made it to California.”

Barone was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., but considers Canfield her second home. She referred to the community as her “extended family” and the students as her own children.

“Come graduation day, I felt like a proud parent to all of them,” she said. “I think it’s that feeling of family that keeps you grounded here.”

Barone plans to take a few months off and relax.

“My husband tells me that I’d be in school 10 months out of the year. So, for 10 months out of the year, my life was consumed by school, and it only got worse when I moved into administration,” she said.

“I want to say I’ll do nothing, and I think for a few months I will do nothing for a while. I think I’ll take some months to just get my head and my house in order. I think I’ll fine-tune my list of things to do and see what I really want to do and what I’m able to do. I’m not quite ready to just sit on the back porch in a rocking chair.”

Barone offered her words of encouragement to her students. She said though many will forget specific lessons in class, few forget the lessons they learned from the school atmosphere.

“You have to make memories, and it’s very important to be involved,” she said. “Get involved in those extracurricular activities, because that’s where you make the memories, and that’s where you’ll rehash the stories.”

Barone said she plans to be actively involved in school functions and athletic events.

“I will miss the energy that the kids bring, because they keep you young. I will miss the great people I’ve worked with and the camaraderie,” she said. “But I’m not going far, and I’ll be just a phone call away.”

jmoffett@vindy.com