Lynn Tech director Paradis retiring

LYNN – Diane Paradis, the Lynn Vocational Technical Institute director who helped lead the school out from under a cloud of state scrutiny and improved the graduation rate, plans to retire in March.?I?m ready,” said Paradis, who was picked to run Tech in 2010.Paradis, 58, informed School Superintendent Dr. Catherine C. Latham of her decision on Monday. She said she will leave her job on Friday for the balance of the calendar year to undergo surgery on her right foot.Tech Vice Principal Robert Buontempo will serve as acting director at the 795-student school, according to Paradis.?I will be back in January and then we will talk about a transition,” Paradis said.Latham is preparing to appoint principals at the Ford School and Marshall Middle School. Interviews for the six finalists for the Ford post were held Wednesday.?Diane has done a wonderful job, and we will miss her,” Latham said. “She came here and did the job we needed her to do.”Paradis said she wants to spend more time with her husband, retired educator David Degon, adding she will not miss her daily, early-morning commute from her home in North Grafton to Lynn.?I?m looking to travel, relax and enjoy life,” she said.Paradis thanked Latham in her page-long resignation letter for “the opportunity to fulfill my personal goal as well as meet the challenge to bring success to Lynn Voc Tech.”She said a skeptical faculty burdened by negative state and federal reviews rallied after she took the helm of the school and pushed to better challenge students. The results, Paradis wrote, included boosting the school?s graduation rate from 54 percent in 2010 to 79 percent this year and increasing daily attendance to almost 94 percent.?The staff, every one of them, are truly educational professionals,” she said.Paradis spent five years as vocational/technical director at the Rindge School of Technical Arts in Cambridge before succeeding former Tech Director James Ridley.She started working full-time as a science teacher in 1979 and worked for 22 years at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough as a teacher, advisor and coach. She served on the Blackstone Valley Vocational Regional District School Committee for 18 years.Paradis anticipates working from home during recuperation from her surgery.?I will be out of sight but not out of mind,” she said.