Hello,
My name is John Skroski, and I will be serving the Augusta Campus as a Police Specialist. I look forward to helping keep a safe learning environment for students, staff, and faculty alike. I am a kind and caring person, whether at work or at home. I believe in treating everyone with kindness and respect as though you were my own friend or family member.
I grew up in Western Massachusetts in the Towns of South Deerfield and Southampton. I also spent some parts of the summer in the city of Somerville, MA, as my parents divorced when I was two. I grew up in a home where I was exposed to family members with mental health and substance use disorders. This was challenging; however, it shaped me to be a more empathetic person throughout my career. I have always wanted to be a Police Officer to “help people.” I felt that way on the first day of my Police Academy in October of 1991 at 19 years old and on my last day when I retired as Chief in Phippsburg in June 2024. I served the public for almost 34 years as a Police Officer in Longmeadow, MA, a Deputy Sheriff and Patrol Sergeant in Penobscot County, and for the last 23 years as a working Chief of Police in Phippsburg. I have responded to and investigated almost any kind of call you can imagine over my career. I am a lifelong learner and believe in keeping an open mind to new techniques and philosophies. In my last couple of years in Phippsburg, I became a Crisis Intervention Trained and certified Officer. I have always been a Police Officer who believes in and employs de-escalation techniques to help bring peaceful resolutions.
I feel some of the most valuable work I have done has been volunteering in my Community. I taught Martial Arts for 11 years, coached girls’ Basketball in Bath for 3 years, led the Bath Middle School and YMCA Freedom Tour for three years, served as a Camp Counselor at Camp P.O.S.T.C.A.R.D., and had various opportunities serving in my Church. I am a strong believer in giving back. Helping and mentoring young adults is something I enjoy doing.
I attended High School in Northampton, MA, at Smith Vocational. In my High School years, I worked many jobs over the summer and throughout the school year. This included picking cucumbers on a farm, picking apples at an orchard, Auto Collision Repair, and multiple lawn mowing jobs. I also worked part-time as a Loss Prevention Detective for a large Supermarket chain and as a uniformed Security Officer at the Digital Computer Company plant in Springfield, MA. I started attending college part-time after I graduated from High School at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, MA, at night. I continued to take classes when time and resources permitted at Quincy College in Springfield, MA, and when I moved to Maine, at Husson University. My favorite courses I have taken to date have been Abnormal Psychology and Sociology. I am currently two courses shy of my Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice. I have attended numerous Police Courses at the Mass Criminal Justice Training Academy and the Maine Criminal Justice Academy throughout my tenure.
I live in the Midcoast of Maine with my wife, Kadi, and two dogs, a Golden Doodle, Beau, and a Golden Retriever, Popham. I met my wife in my Senior Year of High School in 1990, and we married in 1993. My wife graduated from UMASS AMHERST with a BSN in Nursing and a minor in Psychology. She is a Cardiac Nurse Manager of the Interventional Unit at Maine Medical Center in Portland at the new Malone Family Tower. We have three daughters, Chiristine (27) in NYC, Madeline (25) in Maine, and Caroline (21) in Idaho. In my spare time, I enjoy family, gardening, birdwatching, wildlife photography, Martial Arts, mechanical work, and learning carpentry.
I look forward to working with everyone to help foster a safe learning environment at our Campus. Please feel free to stop by and say hello at my office in Randall Hall.
Respectfully,
John B. Skroski