District 13 close to naming new superintendent

District 13 will soon have a new superintendent. The Board of Education has found its replacement for Dr. Elizabeth Lison, who will be retiring in June after eight years leading the district.

Board of Education President Frank Chiachiere said the new superintendent will be appointed at the April 27 board meeting, and will start on July 1. He could not name the person because contract negotiations are ongoing, but said the person is an assistant superintendent in a school district on LongIsland with elementary school experience.

The district’s search consulting firm, School Leadership LLC, selected four candidates to interview with the Board of Education from a pool of 68 applicants. Back in January, School Leadership officials met with board members, teachers and staff, and community members to find out what traits they would like the next superintendent to possess. From there, search criteria was developed and the search firm selected four candidates who best met that.

Chiachiere said that the board did not give School Leadership any direction on how many candidates they wanted to come in for an interview. “We wanted good people,” he said, “whether it was four, six or eight. The number really didn’t matter to us.”

From the four candidates, two were selected to come back for a second interview with the Board of Education, which were held early last week. Board members then selected their top choice. Chiachiere said it was unanimous among board members.

Chiachiere said all four candidates from the first round are current central office administrators on Long Island, and he was very pleased with the quality of choices. “We didn’t interview anyone below the rank of assistant superintendent,” he said. “Any one of them would have made an excellent superintendent.”

Lison said that when the new superintendent is appointed, she will assist in the transition any way that she can. Depending on the person’s availability, she would want the new superintendent to visit the four buildings during the school day, attend a district leadership team meeting, sit down with the assistant superintendents and possibly get to a PTA meeting.