By MIKE RUSSO
Mapes will replace Interim Superintendent Dr. Thomas Caramore on Sept. 1.
Mapes, 59, is currently the superintendent of schools at Nassau BOCES, where he has served for four years. He has an extensive educational background, having also been the superintendent in three school districts in Michigan as well as an elementary, middle and high school principal. He has experience as a special education teacher and has coached football, wrestling and track.
The school board, which pledged in January to fill the superintendent position by July, was unanimous in its decision to hire Mapes. Board President James Scannell said trustees were convinced when they spoke to people who had worked with him over the course of his career. He had many of the qualities the board was looking for, as an experienced educator willing to make a commitment to be both a school and community leader. In addition to his years of successful leadership, they saw in him the ability to inspire the community's confidence in its schools, strong instructional leadership and the ability to identify and obtain outside sources of funding to improve the schools.
"The board is unanimously, 100 percent behind Dr. Mapes," said Scannell. "Everybody shares an equal amount of confidence that Dr. Mapes is going to be an excellent superintendent of schools."
Mapes spoke briefly at the board meeting, where he expressed his desire and willingness to work with everyone in the district. "I'm looking forward to a long and successful relationship," he said. He will spend the summer getting to know members of the staff as well as parents.
Mapes grew up in central Michigan, and earned a degree in special education and a master's in educational leadership at Central Michigan University and a doctorate in educational leadership at Michigan State. He said that the Baldwin school system has a great reputation, and school board trustees get along well with one another. Mapes also said that the diversity in Baldwin is similar to where he grew up, and that he enjoys working in diverse districts because the cultural mix is very enriching.
The board also announced that Caramore will remain with the district during the summer. Trustees recently discovered that Caramore's state-issued waiver, which allows him to serve as interim superintendent as a retiree but was originally thought to expire June 30, was instead open-ended.
Scannell said that last year's appointment of Caramore as interim superintendent for 2007-08 gave the school board the time to conduct a thorough search for a permanent superintendent. "I think that the success of this search illustrates also the way this particular board works together, and also illustrates the commitment that we had to doing this in a deliberate way, with patience and without rushing to judgments," said Scannell. "This way we could be confident that we were finding the best superintendent for Baldwin, and I think we did that."
Comments about this story? MRusso@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
