The search for a new Menands School District superintendent has been narrowed down to three candidates.
After announcing her retirement last summer, Superintendent Kathy Meany is finishing up her sixth year as head of the district. A formal process began in October to find a new superintendent and several interviews have been conducted by a committee than includes parents, business owners, seniors, students, faculty and community members. Now, the three finalists will appear before the Board of Education before that body makes a choice in May.
Meany, who has worked in public education for 35 years, said she decided to retire in order to finish her dissertation on adolescent literacy at the University of Albany as well as have more time to spend with her family.
“I think 35 is a good number,” she said.
The final three candidates have been narrowed down from 45 applicants that Meany said “appear to be very dedicated and experienced educators.”
One candidate, Mathis A Calvin III, holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Rochester, and earned his master’s degree in education from St. John Fisher College and a bachelor’s in education from Keuka College. He is serving his third year as superintendent of the New York School for the Blind in Batavia. Before that, he worked five years as the director of pupil personnel-special education for the Letchworth Central School District in Gainesville, as well as academy director of instruction and middle school dean at the Rochester Leadership Academy Charter School.
William Crankshaw, another candidate, is in his third year with the Northville Central School District, acting as the Northville Elementary principal/CSE chair and director of elementary curriculum and instruction/grant coordinator. He has also worked as Northville’s interim K-12 principal. He has worked as the principal at Glebe Street Elementary School in Johnstown and before becoming administrator, was a music teacher for 17 years. Crankshaw earned a doctorate in educational leadership from Sage Graduate School, a master’s degree in music education from the College of Saint Rose and a bachelor’s degree in music education from Ithaca College.
The third candidate, Maureen A. Long, received her doctorate in educational leadership from Sage Graduate School, earned her master’s degree in education at the Sage Graduate School and her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the College of Saint Rose. She is in her third year as the Scotia-Glenville Central School District’s director of curriculum and instruction, but has experience as the interim superintendent of the North Greenbush Common School District, as well as the chief of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District. Long also spent eight years at the Wynantskill Union Free School District, three years as the CSE chairperson for the North Greenbush Common School District, six years as a special education teacher/secondary CSE chairperson in Troy and four years as a middle school math teacher in Gloversville.
Meany said she’ll spend the remainder of this week giving the three candidates tours of the school district and answering any questions they have.
As she prepares to leave, Meany reflected back on her time with the district and said implementing the Regents reform agenda and transitioning to the Common Core learning standards and new teacher and evaluation assessments have been the biggest changes she’s worked with in the past few years. She said budgetary concerns with limited increases in state aid and a tax levy cap will be challenges for the new superintendent.
“What I would really like to see is that my successor is a professional educator, a strong instructional leader and someone who will continue to build on the many strengths the school district has in proving a high quality educational program for the children of the community,” Meany said.