Six applicants still in running for Fonda-Fultonville superintendent job

PHOTOGRAPHER: Edward Munger Jr.

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Six educators remain in the running to serve as superintendent of the Fonda-Fultonville school district.

Nearly 50 people applied for the position to replace former Superintendent James Hoffman, who left to lead the Averill Park school district this summer.

Of those, the district’s Board of Education has selected four sitting school superintendents, two from Capital Region school districts, said Patrick Michel, interim superintendent at Fonda-Fultonville and superintendent at the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

One of the candidates is a retired superintendent from a Pennsylvania school district and the sixth currently works for the Fonda-Fultonville district, Michel said.

It was a good response in terms of having a wide range of choices from which the board of education can make their selection, he said.

“They had a good pool. I was very pleased, actually and we’ll see how it shakes out. You don’t know until you talk to people, I think they’ve got a chance to really pick up a good leader,” Michel said.

Michel said he went through a rigorous vetting process that saw 23 candidates meeting certification requirements; the other half didn’t.

The list was whittled down to 15 and the Board of Education reviewed background information before agreeing on the six semifinalists.

Meetings between the Board of Education and the individual candidates will take place Wednesday and Thursday before board members decide on the three finalists, Michel said.

Those three will undergo more-intense background checks while Board of Education members make contact with their counterparts at the candidates’ districts.

The district of about 1,450 students is offering a salary between $120,000 and $140,000 for the position leading a staff of 170 with an annual budget of about $24 million.

The district’s search documents describe the right candidate as one who will be able to improve academic achievement and “inspire and unify our community to a common purpose.”

Michel said the goal is to get the new superintendent seated for Jan. 1.