Teacher, principal, superintendent: Barbara Starkie comes full circle in FreeLake School District

LAKEVILLE — Barbara Starkie may have only spent 17 days in the superintendent’s office at Apponequet Regional High School, but she’s spent 25 years on the campus.

The Freetown-Lakeville School Committee appointed Starkie as interim superintendent in March. She stepped in after former Superintendent Alan Strauss resigned in January amid conflict with school committee members. Starkie’s interim term runs through 2026, at which point she and the school committee will decide whether to enter into a three-year contract.

The 54-year-old Fairhaven resident came to the position from Bourne, where she served as assistant superintendent for three and a half years.

“I thought, you know what, I really want to go back to the community where I served so much — and I’m willing to walk away from a secure position to take a risk,” she said.

Starkie’s ties to Apponequet run deep. She spent 10 years there as an English teacher, seven more as a department head and another eight as principal.

Reflecting on her time in the classroom, she said, “budget and facilities seem to be two areas that need to be addressed. I remember as a classroom teacher thinking, if I were in the [superintendent] role, I’d want to fix that.”

She wants a long-term capital plan and a budget that can accommodate things like a “redone theater” and “appropriate playing fields.” At the same time, Starkie acknowledged that “money doesn’t grow on trees” and “we owe our towns fiscal responsibility.”

In the early days of her tenure, she’s already met with administrators from both towns and the local fire chiefs, and plans to meet with each Select Board member individually.

“At those meetings, I’m learning about different priorities,” she said. “I represent the school system, but the town administrator represents the whole town — it’s about getting everyone at the table.”

Starkie said that sitting in the superintendent’s seat is an “opportunity to look at the continuum of education” from pre-K through high school graduation and identify programs “where we might have gaps” and work to fill them.

She pointed to early math and literacy skills as the most critical.

“If we’re building a strong foundation at our elementary levels and then all of our programming springs from that,” she said.

Although Starkie has climbed high in the world of education, she began her career as an accounting major at Salve Regina University — initially hesitant to follow her mother into teaching.

“When you’re a kid, you want to do something different from your parent,” she said. “But as reluctant as I was, my mother was a real inspiration.”

She got her start teaching at IH Schwartz Children’s Rehabilitation Center in New Bedford, teaching students with significant special needs. Later, she applied to be an English teacher at Apponequet — one of 200 applicants. She said she got the job because she agreed to direct the plays and musicals.

Starkie ended up directing productions for over 10 years, and to her, those shows “represent what Freetown-Lakeville is all about.”

“It’s a real coming together of individuals,” she said, recalling how shop students built the sets, art students painted them, business students designed the programs, music students played in the pit orchestra and teachers and parents helped with costumes.

“A show is kind of a symbol of the entire community coming together and a culmination of everyone's efforts. Everybody was willing to help so that the students could shine,” Starkie said.