The Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services and Voorheesville Board of Education are looking to find a replacement for Superintendent Linda Langevin, who is retiring at the end of the month.
Langevin is retiring this summer after serving three years at Voorheesville as superintendent and seven years prior to that at Au Sable Valley.
Ray Colucciello will be the interim superintendent in Langevin’s absence. He previously served in that position at Ballston Spa.
Charles S. Dedrick, the BOCES Capital District superintendent said it hopes to find a suitable replacement by July.
BOCES provides management and administrative services, including superintendent searches, according to its Web site.
Dedrick said he met with the Voorheesville Board of Education at the Monday Aug. 11, meeting and discussed a timeline for the process.
We are talking to Voorheesville to try to get an idea what type of quality and traits they want for their next superintendent, he said.
Dedrick said each superintendent search is different, and it is important to find candidates that fit the needs of the individual school district, and sometimes that means taking someone from in-house, and sometimes it means looking out of the district.
`You try to throw out as big a net as you can, and bring in as many quality candidates as you can, whether internal or external,` he said.
Voorheesville Parent Teacher Association Vice President Tanya Hensel said the district is looking for someone approachable and active in the community.
`We need somebody that can take the bull by the horns and be involved in the community,` she said. `We need someone who can be visible. People want to feel that they are being included and heard.`
She said that the process is difficult, especially since they are also looking for a replacement for the elementary school.
She added that the town is small, and vocal, and the superintendent will need to be able to handle the community’s needs, much like Langevin was able to do.
BOCES and the Board of Education are planning to put an information brochure together and will start advertising the position.
Voorheesville Board of Education Chairman David Gibson said the search for a new superintendent is a great opportunity to improve upon the entirety of the school district.
`We’re really excited about the idea of where the school district is now and the opportunity for building continual improvement for what how we teach children,` he said.
`We need someone who cares about teaching and cares about kids.`
Gibson said there is certainly no requirement that the candidate come from within the district, and having someone in-house who knows the community is only one piece to a larger puzzle.
He added that the candidate should be someone who understands how to use testing not as a bullying tool, but to legitimately improve the education of the students.
Dedrick said they going to leave a window of a few months to accept applications and are planning to interview applicants by October.
Most of the advertising will be done in specialized publications directed toward school administrators, and those publications, Dedrick said, usually come out monthly. He said he wants to make sure there is ample time for potential applicants to learn about the opening.
Gibson said that they are specifically taking a deliberate approach and not selecting a candidate until July in order to vet the best candidates, and also so that they do not put themselves in a position to ask someone to leave their previous posts on such short notice.
Gibson said those candidates would automatically show a lack of commitment.
BOCES and the board are planning to hold public forums to get input from teachers, administrators, staff, parents and members of the community.
They are expecting to fill the position by July 1.“