The Board of Education for the Raquette Lake Union Free School District will interview three candidates for the next Superintendent of Schools.
Current Superintendent Richard Rose announced his plans to retire this spring.
The school district sends its eight students to classes at the Town of Webb Union Free School District. The superintendent position takes an estimated 12 to 20 days of work each year, and it consists of budget and documentation duties, as well as overseeing the school building and staff who work there. The school building is mainly used as a community center and houses some municipal offices.
Board members originally advertised for the position in May, and applications were due at the end of June. Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES District Superintendent Dale Breault Jr. is assisting with the job search, one of the core duties a BOCES provides to the school districts it serves.
Breault reviewed the eight applications he received with school board members on July 6, and they chose to interview three candidates. Those candidates, who will meet with the board on July 26, are Patricia Gardiner, Lizette Pierson and Stephen Shafter.
Gardner lives in Boonville and works for the Town of Web Union Free School District in Old Forge. She has been teaching since 1998, working in Connecticut until shifting to Watertown in 2009 to work at Jefferson-Lewis BOCES.
A Blue Mountain Lake resident, Pierson teaches fourth grade at Indian Lake Central School District. She has been a teacher since 2005, previously working in Syracuse City Schools.
Shafer lives in Malone and is partially retired, currently working as a part-time curriculum coordinator. He headed up Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES as district superintendent from 2007 to 2019, and he served in various other administrative positions at FEH BOCES, Malone Central Schools and Norwood-Norfolk Central School. Before that, Shafer taught science and math in Pulaski.
School board members hope to make a decision and announce the new superintendent soon after the interviews.