GF school in flux: 6 top administration jobs are open or shifting

Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: Glens Falls School District has six top positions in flux: Superintendent of Schools, Assistant Superintendent, Athletic Director, High School Principal, High School Assistant Principal and Middle School Assistant Principal.

They think they’re found the new superintendent.

“We hope to introduce her at our April 11 Board meeting,” its president Timothy Graham tells The Chronicle. He said the district is awaiting confirmation of the contract.

Current Superintendent Paul Jenkins retires in June.

Skye Heritage, the district’s Director of Communications, tells The Chronicle 23 people applied for the position. The board interview 11. Three finalists met last week with two “stakeholder” committees of parents, board members, teachers, and other school staff.

The current High School Principal Tammy Silvernell tells The Chronicle she applied and was accepted to move up as Assistant Superintendent, who serves as Director of Curriculum and Instruction, succeding Trent Clay, who is also retiring.

The district now must fill Mrs. Silvernell’s position as well as replacing retiring Assistant Principal Arthur “Chip” Corlew, and Laurie Parker, one of its two Middle School Assistant Principals.

Mr. Corlew mainly served as Athletic Director, Mr. Graham said. New regulations make AD a separate, district-wide position, he said, to also oversee physical education, health education and more. So, Mr. Graham said, the district seeks also to add a new, dedicated Assistant High School Principal position.

“We have the money to do that,” in the short term through Covid and other funding, he said. “With the problems kids are having now, social-emotional learning and discipline, we felt it is appropriate.”

Mr. Graham said they anticipate even more administrative changes “in the next five years.” Mrs. Silvernell said, “There’s a wave we are seeing” of administrative retirements and changes, “not just at Glens Falls but around the region.”

“Some is probably related to the stress of the past years,” and Covid, said Mrs. Silvernell. “But we saw this coming well before Covid. A lot of administrative staff in this and other districts are around the same age. Our regional principals group started trying to recruit people who are teaching to move up, because we anticipated a lot of people in their 50s retiring or moving forward in administration at the same time.”

“We’ve only had two superintendents in 27 years,” Mr. Graham said, noting that the norm is to stay for less than 5 years.

Copyright © 2022 Lone Oak Publishing Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved