School District Enlists BOCES in Superintendent Search

With current Superintendent Edward Ehmann’s retirement coming in June, the Smithtown Central School District enlisted the services of Western Suffolk BOCES in its search to fill the position.

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Michael Mensch, chief executive officer and deputy superintendent of BOCES, said during Tuesday’s board meeting that the role of BOCES is not to choose a new superintendent but to facilitate the district in their search.

“We do not pick a superintendent, we present the board with all of the applicants and we do make suggestions based on the criteria that was developed,” he said.

The BOCES resume for superintendent searches includes the Commack, Lindenhurst, and Huntington school districts. Smithtown is also familiar with their search practices as the district used them to fill the superintendent position five years ago that resulted in the hiring of Ehmann.

During the BOCES presentation Tuesday night, a plan was unveiled for how they will conduct the search, which includes surveying the board and the community, creating recruitment materials and advertisements, screening candidates, scheduling interviews and more.

Board President Gladys Waldron said during Tuesday’s meeting that the board would submit surveys with candidate requirements to BOCES by Nov. 9.

The cost of BOCES services cost roughly $15,000, but would not come with additional costs of the taxpayer. Scott Martella, vice president of the board, explained that the superintendent search is part of the services the district already pays for.

“Much of this service is provided already by the taxpayers because we dedicate a certain amount of funds to western Suffolk BOCES … under the umbrella of that money is this service,” he said.

Martella added that the only cost to the district would be to pay for advertisements.

In a phone interview, board member Louis Liguori said aside from monetary savings of using BOCES versus a human resources service, the BOCES plan for a superintendent search impressed the board.

“It’s a very extensive program that they have in place, they’ve done this and showed success in doing this for many other school districts,” he said. “They pretty much have their fingers on the pulse of the whole educational field on who is looking for positions.”