Community+Leader+(Admin)

Hello, my name is Tony Baldasaro. I am the Chief Human Resource Officer and Personalized Pathways Administrator at The Virtual Learning Academy Charter School. In addition to supervising the school's rapidly growing faculty (The school opened with 40 teachers in January 2008. We now have approximately 125), I partner with local school to help students meet competencies (NH is moving away from the traditional Carnegie Unit) and develop Experiential Learning Opportunities which allow students to earn high school credit through a blend of experiential and online learning. [|VLACS] has very quickly become a disrupting force in New Hampshire public education as our enrollment has exploded from 700 in January of '08 to an estimated 9,000 at this time. This has not only triggered many debates at the state level relative to funding, but also pushed conversations in the education community toward a more flexible approach to educating New Hampshire students. It is an incredible feeling knowing that you are part of a team of educators changing the way students are educated. Intoxicating really.

In addition, I have worked hard to expand my professional learning network, especially since attending Will and Sheryl's [|Web2.0 Bootcamp for Administrators] in Philly last summer. [|I tweet] regularly, bookmark on delicious and diigo, contribute to my photostream in Flickr, write in my blog, and continue to develop a presence on Linked In. Finally, like many other people, I have developed a particular addiction to Facebook- although I don't understand why people who would give me the time of day twenty years ago in high school suddenly think we are now friends!

In my personal life, I spend a lot of time with my wife (Kelli) and three kids (Ben, Beth and Emma). We live in Stratham, NH which is ten minutes from the New Hampshire seacoast, and an hour from the lakes and mountains to the north or Boston to to the south. If I am not at work, I am usually at a hockey rink, a horse barn, a soccer field, a football field, a basketball court, a baseball/softball diamond, or cross country meet cheering on my kids in some sort of sporting event. Like many kids, my kids like to be active and be with friends and Kelli and I feel really lucky to have three healthy children who enjoy doing the things that kids enjoy doing. When we have time, we enjoy going to Lake Winnipesaukee and the beach (I much prefer the lake over the beach), going geocaching, cheering on the Red Sox and Patriots both on TV and in person, and taking short, family-friendly hikes. We also really like going to Boston for an afternoon or weekend to try to absorb some of the energy that at big city exudes.

Finally, we typically take 2 or 3 trips to Tampa, Florida each year. Kelli's aunt and uncle live there and they welcome us with open arms. Having done this now for nearly a decade, we sometimes consider Tampa our second home, although we are very happy to live - and raise our kids - where we do!

So, let me leave you with my contact information: Twitter: baldy7 skype: tbaldasaro email: tbaldasaro@gmail.com delicious: tbaldasaro diigo: baldy7 posterous: tbaldasaro blog: [|www.transleadership.wordpress.com] Flickr: tonybaldasaro

I really look forward to working with... and learning from... you.

Tony