Randy McLeod

"You should get into computers — they're going to be really important in the future."

So said Randy McLeod's mother when he was about 13 years old. A Pittsfield native, he was attending Pittsfield High School at the time, which is where he says he "got the itch for technology." With his mom's encouragement, he started taking high school computer programming classes. It took off from there, eventually leading him down a path that brought him to where he is today: Director of Technology at Lenox Public Schools.

It wasn't a direct route, however. Having graduated high school in 1994, Randy tried a few different career paths, even relocating to North Carolina briefly before deciding to return to his hometown. In the late '90s, he was working for Radio Shack when he decided to give community college a try and enrolled at BCC. During that time, he landed an internship for Pittsfield Public Schools — and that internship turned into a full-time job. Randy credits Nick Delgreco, former professor of Engineering and Technology at BCC, with helping to create the internship and encouraging him to apply.

That's how it all started. Without that internship, I don't have any clue where I would be. BCC was truly the foundation of bringing me to where I am today.

After the internship turned into a job, Randy found himself settling into a routine and making good money. At the time, he saw no reason to continue his education.

"I thought, 'There's no reason to go back to school. I've got the career path I want, and I don't need it,'" Randy recalls. Fast forward to 2008, when he became technical services director for Pittsfield Public Schools.

"That got me thinking, 'I want to be the director one day,'" he says. Joseph Curtis, then working with Randy in the technology department for Pittsfield Public Schools, told him he was unlikely to be considered for the job without a bachelor's degree. It was all Randy needed to hear.

"It was great, because my boss allowed me take a couple hours a day to go to BCC if I made up the time," says Randy. In 2012, he enrolled in an online program at the University of Phoenix. With a major in computer science, he studied nights and weekends, graduating in 2014. The timing could not have been better: Just one year later, the director of technology left, and Randy ended up getting the job.

With the job, however, came tremendous responsibilities. The new Taconic High School was being built, adding to a very full workload.

"I was working 55 to 65 hours a week trying to get that school started, and it was really burning me out. I had a four-year-old at the time, and I was missing out on a lot," Randy says. Making the commitment to spend more time with family, he took another job for a contracted services provider in Pittsfield. It proved to be a good move — but, eventually, the work week crept up to 60 to 70 hours a week. Once again, Randy, now the father of two boys, felt like he was missing out on family time.

"I knew I needed a change, so I made up my mind to find something different. Two weeks later, I got a call from Lenox Public Schools that they needed a new director," Randy says, marveling at the extraordinary timing. "What you put out in the world is what you get back."

That philosophy held true when Randy took classes at BCC. Until that time, school didn't excite him. But when Nick Delgreco's class on digital circuits came around, something clicked.

"It was the first time I had an experience where I wasn't bored with school. I would work on projects till 9 or 10 at night just because I loved it," Randy says. "That's kind of where that drive came from, plus my dad is an engineer, so I had that background. Things just grew from there."

Today, Randy finds himself master of all trades, with no two workdays the same. "When I worked in Pittsfield I had technicians, data people, maybe seven or eight people under me. In Lenox, I do it all. I might fix a projector one minute and try to figure out how the network is going to be designed the next minute," he says

Randy sees a lot of pressure with high-school aged children. "We have so many kids that get 4.0s that we had to go to seven or eight digits to see who is valedictorian. It's crazy. Is that how your kid wants to live their life?" he wonders, adding that a good education doesn't have to involve fancy schools or high GPAs. In fact, he says, community college can be the perfect place to figure out a career path.

Once you take your basic classes, it gets into the things you really want to do. All the classes I took at BCC were geared to what I was going to be doing with computers. Plus, it's now free for so many people. You can't beat that.

When Randy isn't at work, he devotes his spare time to attending hockey games for sons Everett and Connor. A former hockey player and coach himself, Randy doesn't mind all the lengthy driving to hockey games because it gives him quality time with family. He's not missing out anymore.