He was director of the Arlington (VA) Career Center for almost 30 years before retiring in 2000 when he was a winner of the Washington Post's prestigious Distinguished Educational Leadership award.
He is married to another Oswego graduate, Edie Fiske, who was a middle school math teacher, counselor and director of guidance, all in Fairfax County schools. She's active in League of Women Voters of Falls Church and Arlingtononians Meeting Emergency Needs, Inc.
This is an article that appeared in the Spring/Summer 2000 publication of the Oswego Alumni Association of the State of New York:
In 1972 Thomas Smolinski ’60 accepted the invitation of Arlington County educators to help design and manage a career center based on New York State’s BOCES model.
“I left my BOCES position in Buffalo with the idea that I would stay five years,” says Smolinski.
Today, he is director of the Arlington Career Center, a complex comprised of a library, department of human resources, health clinic, and elementary school, that is open six days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. all year. The center provides high school students and adults with credit programs in vocational, technical, gifted, and special education.
“We’re the school for those who learn differently,” explains the director. In 1974, Smolinski designed a curriculum for at-risk students that combined basic math and social studies with workplace experience.
He developed the county’s first television production class that same year, and has seen the station thrive to become cable TV for the entire county.
Last year, Smolinski’s innovation and dedication were recognized and rewarded: he was one ofthe Washington Post’s Distinguished Educational Leadership award winners.
“It is a wonderful program that recognizes principals and teachers of public and private schools in the area for a certain level of excellence,” explains Smolinski. “The Post really treats us like royalty, with recognition dinners, a Waterford Crystal bell, and a week in St.Thomas. Imagine how good that kind of recognition feels to a bunch of educators!”
Smolinski says he genuinely loves working as an educator. Even in administration, he has never lost his excitement for teaching and for encouraging students to do their best.
He attributes his career’s success to an ability to work with others, a trait he learned at Oswego, when he was co-editor of the yearbook.
“In many ways, that experience taught me the value of teamwork. The lesson has stayed with me over the years.”
