Wednesday, November 18, 2015

A long road ahead to replace Short

By Anthony Calabrese

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.- Plattsburgh City District Superintendent James M. Short has announced his plans for retirement for the next school year. He has served as top school administrator since July 2006.

The Plattsburgh City School District Board of Education will begin the search for a new superintendent. According to Jay Lebrun, Associate Superintendent Plattsburgh School District, the search process is expected to take at least four months.

David Barooduy, Plattsburgh High School Assistant Principal said, “The Board of Education will initially meet and discuss a variety of topics including, should they use a search firm? What type of candidates should they be looking for? And what process should be used to screen/evaluate possible candidates?” 

“We will do a statewide search which will involve sending out information to certain media sites, we will set deadlines, pay scale, and qualifications. We will form committees to do the interviews and help the Board in our Ultimate decision,” said Tract Rotz, Vice President Plattsburgh City School District.

In addition, Baroodey and Lebrun note that the roles and responsibilities of the Plattsburgh school board of education include picking groups to interview prospective candidates, and determine the costs for the entire process.

Short said, “The Board of Education is working with Dr. Mark Davey, BOCES Superintendent for his services to conduct a state-wide Superintendent search. BOCES Superintendents commonly perform this service for local schools. A position advertisement brochure and series of media posts will be developed in the near future and should be out circulating just prior to the December break. Advertising will continue through February.”

Once applicants have been narrowed down in February, to two or three, a next step is to have “The Board of Education and series of smaller committees conduct longer interviews with final few candidates.” said Lebrun. “Perhaps one with Teachers, one with Administrators, one with support staff or one with parents. This may also include a visit to the candidates' home district to meet colleagues.”

“During March the Board will conduct a series of interview steps involving the greater school community. The plan is to have the new Superintendent named by April. Most schools require administrators to provide a 90 day notice if they are leaving for another position. April allows for the person to be ready to begin in Plattsburgh by July 1” said Short.

Lebrun agrees, “In March the board appoints the selected candidate and approves the negotiated contract.  The chosen Superintendent will then spend April, May and June meeting with various staff and community members, working with outgoing Superintendent, etc., before beginning work on July 1.”

Some of the challenges discussed by the Plattsburgh City School Board of Education that the New Superintendent will walk into include taking care of the merging of athletics in Plattsburgh and Chazy schools, and also the High Stakes tests that they are making all the school take.

“Although Local area mergers, such as the one between Westport and Elizabethtown-Lewis Central schools are not an immediate concern to the new candidate.” Dawn Stetz, Secretary to Superintendent & District Clerk said, “We haven’t and are not in the process of doing so.” As soon as a new superintendent is picked he will begin to look into all of these last minute problems that need to be solved.


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