OXFORD – The Oxford Academy and Central District’s board of education accepted the resignation of Superintendent Randall Squier Tuesday night at the district’s annual reorganizational meeting.
Last month, Squier notified school leaders of his intention to accept a position with the Coxsackie-Athens Central School. The district, located in Greene County, has just under 1,600 students and operates on an annual budget of roughly $25 million.
Oxford, in comparison, serves approximately 850 students on an annual budget of $16.9 million.
According to Squier, his last official day as Oxford’s superintendent will be Aug. 7.
Former School Board President Robin DeBrita attended last night’s meeting. She took the opportunity during public comment to both congratulate Squier on his new position and thank him for his six years of service to Oxford.
“You’ve had the courage to remain focused on the kids,” she said, despite challenging times. “I sincerely wish you continued success.”
Selecting a new superintendent is a school board’s most important job, according to DCMO BOCES District Superintendent Bill Tammaro, who was on hand to walk the board through the search process.
The board has several options for conducting the search, he explained. They include contracting with the New York State School Boards Association to do the search, doing it on their own, hiring an outside education consultant or conduct the search through DCMO BOCES. According to Tammaro, the BOCES service is offered at no charge other than the cost of printing the brochure.
The first steps, he explained, would be to determine the qualities and qualifications the district is looking for in a candidate. That information would be used to create the brochure. Once that was completed, the position would be advertised.
“Usually we like to advertise for two to three months to get a pool of applicants,” Tammaro said.
He warned that if Oxford wished to fill the position by January 1, it would limit that advertising window to two months. This can be done, he said, referencing one of the most recent searches he conducted, for Bainbridge-Guilford. Tammaro said 35 applications were received for the position, which was advertised for a period of two months.
Board Member Joe Spence expressed concerns about “squeezing” the search into the tight timeline and asked the Tammaro what he considered ideal.
“I like at least three months ... but it puts you out until February-March,” was Tammaro’s response.
Once the application period closes, Tammaro said he himself would screen each resume, check references and interview each candidate. He would present all of his information to the board, and help them narrow the pool to the top six applicants, who would each be brought in for a first round interview with the board. Based on these interviews, the board would select the top three candidates.
Tammaro said he recommends bringing each of the three finalists in for a full day with the district. During the day, they would be interviewed by five committees: one comprised of faculty members, another of non-faculty staff, one of students, one of community members and another of administrators. Each of these committees would provide feedback to the board, he explained, as it is the board who would be responsible for the final decision.
According to Tammaro, Oxford will also be faced with another decision: what will the school’s administrative structure look like after Squier’s departure. For the last year, Squier has pulled double duty as both the district’s superintendent and the primary school principal. They obtained a waiver from the New York State Education Department to do so, which enabled them to cut an administrative position in the 2010-11 budget.
This won’t be an option in the future, Tammaro said, relaying a recent conversation he had with NYSED Associate Commissioner Ken Slentz.
“He said (Commissioner John B. King) will deny any waiver that comes to him,” the BOCES superintendent explained.
Why? According to Tammaro, part of it has to do with the size of the district and the “amount of work curriculum-wise” required of building administrators. But the teacher evaluation process being mandated as part of Race To The Top is also a factor, he said. The evaluation itself would be done by the building principal, but teachers have the right to appeal it to the superintendent, therefore the principal and superintendent cannot be one and the same.
This leaves Oxford, which did not budget for an additional administrative position in its 2011-12 budget, in a tight spot. But Tammaro appeared optimistic that they would have several choices of how to proceed.
“I think there are a lot of options you can look at,” he said.
Tammaro went into executive session with the board at the conclusion of the meeting to discuss filling the position on an interim basis while the full search is conducted, as well as the requirements they’ll seek in a permanent replacement for Squier.