Dr. Howard Lynch was School Superintendent for nineteen years between 1965 and 1984. Perhaps the most telling aspect of his record in Sidney is that not once in his nineteen years was the school budget ever voted down.
Dr. Lynch was educated at Albany State Teachers College, Syracuse University and Columbia University. He served three years in the US Army during World War 11. Upon returning from the war he began a seventeen-year career in the Bedford School District, coaching and teaching business and math, becoming a secondary school administrator and then taking an assignment as Assistant Superintendent. Sidney Central School beckoned and nearly two decades of his life were devoted to making Sidney Central School System the best it could be.
In a distinguished career he has been commended in the American School Board Journal, recognized by the American Associations of School Administrators and featured in "American School and University" for the first open-spaced elementary school in New York State. While in Sidney he led the expension of the High Shool and Middle School (both pojects achieved with federal garants) and sold two closed schools, one of which became the Sidney Civic Center. Through a community/school collaboration, tennis courts were built on school property for school and public use.
During his tenure, Sidney's High School Olympics of the Mind Teams were State Champions twice; the Future Farmers of America were top in the State for six consecutive years; and athletic teams won league and sectional championships in basketball and wrestling. Sidney was also recognized by the State for the number of Regents diplomas earned.
Few administrators have served New York State so thoroughly. Dr. Lynch's positions included service as a Board Member of New York State Council of School District Administrators and chairman of a number of its committees: Curriculum and Instruction, Professional Certification, Counseling and Placement among them. He was a member of the Commission of Education Advisory Council; President of the Catskill Area School Study Council; and member of the Sidney Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club. He was named Citizen of the Years in 1983.