Extra Mile Award Recognizes Significant Positive Contributions
Mary McGeoch, a managing program coordinator of the Northeastern Regional Information Center (NERIC) Data Warehouse team, has received our 2022 Extra Mile Award.
This award recognizes staff who go the Extra Mile by making a significant positive contribution to our Capital Region BOCES community, and exemplify all of our guiding commitments throughout their work. Recipients are nominated and awards are given out annually at our staff Opening Day celebration.
In nominating Solares for this award, NERIC Managing Program Coordinator Jeff Luks had this to say:
“Mary serves as the Manager for the NERIC Data Warehouse Team and our Level 1 Project Manager and Technical Standards Contact on behalf of our over 200 Public Schools, BOCES, Charter Schools, NYS Agencies and Private Schools, a position she has held for over 10 years. In this role she is responsible for helping districts meet the New York State Reporting Requirements, which change on a regular basis, including large changes during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Mary leads the internal Data Warehouse team with a gentle, but firm guiding hand. No matter what her personal pressures are, she never lets it affect her work. She is tireless in ensuring the NYSED regulations are as logical (as possible) and that our LEA’s understand them. She is a tireless advocate for our LEA’s with NYSED to ensure items are reported correctly and the LEA’s receive their full credit and funding.
Mary ensures that the Data Warehouse staff provide the best customer service as possible and many Superintendents and District Data Coordinator’s only want to speak to her when they have a major issue or data concern. She is a resource for the NERIC Student and Financial Services Support staff and has worked directly with our vendors to ensure that they understand the NYS Reporting requirements so that our district’s data is reported accurately. Mary is held in the highest esteem by her peers across the state and has presented with NYSED at New York School Data Analysis Technical Assistance Group (DATAG) conferences. She has also presented to new school board members and School Business Officials at the request of NYSSBA and ASBO New York.
In many cases Mary goes the “Extra Mile” by helping to ensure that the district’s data is correct and accurate, working extra hours to ensure this is the case. There are occasions that she has logged on to the various systems in the middle of the night to ensure that updates were made and processes ran correctly. In addition to overseeing the Data Warehouse service, she also started our Shared Data Assistance Coordinator (SDAC) service a few years ago, which provides a premiere level of Data Warehouse support to subscribing districts. Currently that service has 44 LEA’s as subscribers and brings in over $1 million in revenue, which is in addition to the $1.5 million in revenue for our base Data Warehouse service.
On a more personal note, having supervised Mary in her current capacity for my almost 10 years at NERIC, I cannot say enough about what she brings to the Student Team, NERIC and Capital Region BOCES as a whole. She is a trusted advisor, wonderful and caring person and acts as my conscience on many matters. To say that I rely on her wisdom, advice and common sense would be an understatement. Just like saying that Mary goes the extra mile is an understatement, I would say she runs the entire marathon.”
Additionally, Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES District Superintendent Dale Breault shared these kind words:
“I have had the unique experience of working with Mary in three different capacities. As a school district leader who also served as the CIO, Mary is the person who I always hoped would answer the phone when I called. She always gave me confidence that she knew exactly how to answer my questions and would always guide me through the latest data process in a friendly and patient manner.
When I worked with Mary as a RIC Director, I learned that Mary was not only an expert in the data world, but she was also a wonderful and dedicated employee who was a capable leader of her respective team. While at NERIC, I was able to get to know Mary on a bit of a personal level and quickly learned that she was also an awesome human being. In short, Mary is a positive person how makes everyone around her happier.
Now that I am a BOCES District Superintendent, I do not have as many opportunities to interact with Mary, but I can say that my BOCES is in very good shape from a data perspective due to Mary’s leadership of her team. I still see her from time to time, and I know that when she travels to our region to present or to give updates, her sessions are always well-attended. This is simply because of her reputation for ‘knowing her stuff,’ and people appreciate it.”
Congratulations and thank you for going the extra mile, Mary.
The Commitment Awards were established to recognize employees who embody each commitment to a significant degree, and is one part of a three-tiered recognition program to build a culture of gratitude through acknowledgment and appreciation. Our Commitments — SERVICE, VALUE, EXCELLENCE, IMPROVEMENT, LEADERSHIP — embody what we do and who we are.