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DENTON – For Rick Barton, it’s all about gratitude – and paying it forward.
The president of the Caroline County Board of Education stepped down Dec. 3 following a 4-year term that involved hiring a new superintendent and navigating the Covid pandemic.
He’s grateful for much, including the opportunity to serve the school board during a time of crisis, and for two years as president, exercising a skill he’s honed for 11 years as chief executive officer of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc. (ICISF).
Barton attended the Dec. 3 meeting until new school board members Chrissy Bartz and Stefanie Johnson were sworn in. Then he stepped aside, smiling as the new board was seated, then quietly slipped out the door.
“We wouldn't be where we are without Rick's leadership,” Caroline County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Derek Simmons said on Nov. 19. “You've laid a very firm foundation for members … you've set a high bar. Your impact has been profound during your term, and I appreciate what you've done.”
From coaching Little League, to joining the Ridgely Lions Club, to serving on the board of the YMCA and volunteering for Special Olympics, Barton, 72, has felt the need to serve the community. In 2020, friends urged him to run for an open seat on the school board. “It's such a powerful part of our community, and I've always tried to find ways to contribute to the community,” he said.
Barton decided not to run for a second term. “I just felt it was somebody else’s turn,” he said. “As you age, you just say. I need to let younger people take over.’”
“From day one, Rick has been extremely supportive, helpful, honest,” Simmons said. “More than anything else, Rick has been a mentor.”
“Derek, you've done a great job,” Barton said. “It’s just been a joy and a pleasure, and sure, a lot of work and it's hard (work). I have no regrets.”
In a Nov. 26 interview at his home in Denton, Barton credited hiring Simmons in 2021 as the “number one” accomplishment of the school board.
Barton praised former school board president Jim Newcomb and the Maryland Association of School Boards for leading the hiring process. Simmons, who grew up in Cordova, “knew this rural county,” Barton said. “He knew what made people here tick … and he hit the ground running. The best thing that’s happened during my tenure.”
Barton moves to Caroline
Before buying a small farm near Hillsboro, Barton had worked for the state of Maryland, traveling throughout the state as superintendent of the Maryland Park Service for 17 years.
State parks, while providing spaces for families and individuals to enjoy the great outdoors, can also be locations of “a lot of tragic incidents,” Barton said. His association with ICISF began as he sought to help his staff deal with harrowing accidents.
“If you think about it, when people are in the outdoors, they fall, they get hurt. And oftentimes, their whole family is there to see it happen,” Barton said. “It's very challenging. Staff encounter terrible incidents. and it weighs on them. It wears them down. We were law enforcement back then, and we learned that something could be done to help them cope with” the weight of the trauma they experienced.
The program that made a transformational difference in the lives of the park rangers was designed by ICISF. “They helped change the lives of people I care about in the Maryland Park Service – people who were really in trouble – and this program helped them cope with what they had dealt with,” Barton said.
When he retired 12 years later, the people who were helped through the program “were retiring in good standing, they were healthy, they were moving on in life. They weren't alcoholics,” he said. “The people who started out strong in their careers were finishing strong. They were healthy and happy and moving on in life, and that was because of that program.”
When he was later offered the opportunity to head the foundation, he said yes, on the condition that ICISF would set the terms of his compensation. “It was about the mission, so it was payback time,” Barton said.
While Barton began directing the park service during the recession of 1990, then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer slashed the budget, ordering Barton to close 12 state parks, including Tuckahoe and Martinak, and fire the personnel.
Barton made up his mind to go to each community and break the news. On his way to Ridgely Elementary School to the community meeting, he took note of a small farm for sale on State Route 480.
At the school, “I thought, I'm going to get barbecued,” he said. “But no, they were not mean to me at all. They were angry, but they were angry at the governor. And they were nice to me,” he said. “And I thought, Wow, these people are enraged, and that's the way they treat me. And if I move here, my children will go to that school. So, the manager of Tuckahoe is a very good friend of mine, wonderful guy, maybe our best park ranger in Maryland. I talked to him about it and said, ‘Is it what I think it is?’ He says, ‘Yes, it's a nice community. You won't regret it.’”
“And I bought that farm. I brought my family here. That's why I moved to Caroline County, because the people of Ridgely, the people of Caroline County at that meeting were so nice,” Barton said. “And so that was for me, once again, payback. So, once I got here I was traveling all over the state. But what I could do here, I tried to do.”
Barton’s career has been varied. After retiring from the Maryland Park Service, Barton was public works director for Caroline County, and from 2008 to 2011 he served as county administrator, which is when he met his wife Patti, who works in the CCPS central office. His two older sons Matt and Ethan became big brothers to Patti’s daughters, Rachel and Elizabeth. From 1991 to 2023 they’ve raised their children in CCPS schools, and all four graduated from North Caroline High School.
After a long career working for the government, Barton concluded that he had had “enough of government,” he said. “I really wanted to go into nonprofit work or something else.” Since 2013, he has been CEO of the foundation that serves first responders around the globe.
As he plans for the future, there is Christmas to prepare for in his and Patti’s cozy home on the Choptank River, where his bobbleheads are tucked in among a group of caroling figurines in the living room, and where a movie poster of “It’s a Wonderful Life” hangs. Books need to be packed up – his favorites are nonfiction and historical books about American presidents and generals.
The Bartons are beginning the process of packing up their belongings, selling their waterfront home on 1st Street in Denton, and moving to Fenwick Island to be close to the beach. He plans to double down on his fitness routine that includes long-distance bicycling.
Of his brief tenure on the school board, Barton said, “I'm just proud to have worked with a group like this. We have a tremendous group, I kind of feel like I just went along for the ride and did what I know how to do. It's just been wonderful.”
