OXFORD – If you want to know what the SAD 17 superintendent is reading, pick up the December issue of The School Administrator magazine.

Mark Eastman, who recently announced his intent to retire by June 2010, was profiled as superintendent of the month in the award-winning American Association of School Administrator’s monthly magazine.

“It was kind of a treat,” Eastman said of being in the spotlight. “It was fun.”

The article by senior editorial assistant Francesca Duffy gives the broad scope of Eastman’s career, from his arrival as SAD 17’s superintendent in 1995, as project coordinator for Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, at the time the largest school construction project in the state, his vision to Aspire Higher and implement the district’s motto, “Dare to accept the challenge,” to forging a teacher exchange program with a school in China.

With comments from school board member Mary Pietroski and Chairman Ron Kugell, the article includes a sidebar that offers a more personal look at Eastman, who came to the 3,500-student SAD 17 district from Mars Hill in Aroostook County where he was superintendent of a 600-student district.

In the sidebar, Eastman cites his greatest influence (his first principal, Paul Brunnelle), his best professional day (a call saying the district had received a $1 million donation for its scholarship foundation), his biggest career blooper (scratching his signature on an annual report and being chastised by a retired penmanship teacher for poor modeling of handwriting) and what he is reading (“L.L. Bean” by Leon Gorman, “Educating Oppositional and Defiant Children” by Philip S. Hall and Nancy D. Hall, and Evelina Chao’s “Yeh Yeh’s House.”)

The School Administrator editor, Jay Goldman, said profiling a Maine superintendent was a long time coming.

“Typically the superintendents who are profiled in our magazine have been recommended by the executive director of the state superintendent’s association as an exemplary school system leader,” Goldman said. “I’m quite sure this was the case with Mark Eastman.”

Goldman said it has also been quite some time since a Maine superintendent was profiled. “I was anxious in 2008 to finally get to this,” he said of Eastman’s profile.

The American Association of School Administrators, founded in 1865, is the professional organization for more than 13,000 educational leaders across the United States. AASA members range from chief executive officers, superintendents and senior level school administrators to cabinet members, professors and aspiring school system leaders, according to information on its Web site.

The article is available for viewing online at www.aasa.org/publications.