RIH Board to Start Looking for Permanent Superintendent

The interim Superintendent of the Ramapo Indian Hills School District has only been in the job for about a month.

But, members of the regional high school district’s Board of Education say they are looking to start the search for his permanent replacement.

At a meeting Monday night Board President Lynn Budd announced that one of the board’s goals for the 2013-14 school year is to initiate this month the process to find a permanent superintendent.

According to Budd, the board has not yet decided how it wants to go about the search, or whether or not it wants to hire a search firm to find candidates for the position. But, the timeline for the decisions is tight, she said.

Considering that a superintendent search generally takes six months, and the chosen candidate would need to give his or her previous district several months notice, a search would likely need to kick off in January to put a permanent superintendent in place by the start of the next school year, Budd said.

The district also has the option of renewing interim Superintendent Ernie Palastis’s contract for a second year, she said.

Palestis is the second of two interims to lead the district after former Superintendent Dr. Lauren Schoen announced in February that she would be leaving the district to take a Superintendent position open in Mahwah.

RIH Curriculum Director Beverly MacKay acted as interim Superintendent between when Schoen left in May and Palestis took over at the end of August.

The board is expected to further discuss its superintendent plan at future meetings.