Charles Lyons
Biography:
Charles Lyons has been superintendent/director of the Shawsheen Valley Technical School District since 1987. He serves on the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents Finance Task Force and its Legislative Committee. In May of 2006, Lyons received the Superintendents’ “Presidents Award” recognizing him for his outstanding contribution to the state Association. Lyons is a past president of the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators (1996) and currently serves on the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Board of Directors.
In 2004 Lyons served as President of the National League of Cities (NLC), the nation’s oldest and largest organization representing municipal government.
During his tenure as NLC president, Lyons crisscrossed the country advocating on behalf of American cities and towns. He is the recipient of the 2005 “President’s Awards” from both the United States Conference of Mayors and the National League of Cities.
Lyons served as an Arlington selectman from 1981 to 2005. He began his public service career with his election to the Arlington School Committee in 1972, making him the first 18-year-old in the nation to be elected to a city or town-wide post.
Lyons was the longest serving member of the Massachusetts Municipal Association Board of Directors and chaired its Task Force on Housing and Land Use. He is the past president of the Massachusetts Selectmen’s Association.
From 1985 to 1996, he served on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, established to clean up Boston Harbor and provide a safe water supply to 2 ½ million residents of eastern Massachusetts. Lyons was a founding member of the national Combined Sewer Overflow Partnership.
Lyons holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston State College. The Billerica Boys and Girls Club recently honored him as 2008 ‘Man of the Year’ in Billerica. In 1984 the Arlington Chamber of Commerce honored him as ‘Man of the Year’ in his hometown of Arlington.