OXFORD – The Oxford Academy and Central District’s board of education accepted the resignation of Superintendent Randall Squier Tuesday night at the district’s annual reorganizational meeting.
Last month, Squier notified school leaders of his intention to accept a position with the Coxsackie-Athens Central School. The district, located in Greene County, has just under 1,600 students and operates on an annual budget of roughly $25 million.
Oxford, in comparison, serves approximately 850 students on an annual budget of $16.9 million.
According to Squier, his last official day as Oxford’s superintendent will be Aug. 7.
Former School Board President Robin DeBrita attended last night’s meeting. She took the opportunity during public comment to both congratulate Squier on his new position and thank him for his six years of service to Oxford.
“You’ve had the courage to remain focused on the kids,” she said, despite challenging times. “I sincerely wish you continued success.”
Selecting a new superintendent is a school board’s most important job, according to DCMO BOCES District Superintendent Bill Tammaro, who was on hand to walk the board through the search process.
The board has several options for conducting the search, he explained. They include contracting with the New York State School Boards Association to do the search, doing it on their own, hiring an outside education consultant or conduct the search through DCMO BOCES. According to Tammaro, the BOCES service is offered at no charge other than the cost of printing the brochure.
The first steps, he explained, would be to determine the qualities and qualifications the district is looking for in a candidate. That information would be used to create the brochure. Once that was completed, the position would be advertised.
“Usually we like to advertise for two to three months to get a pool of applicants,” Tammaro said.
He warned that if Oxford wished to fill the position by January 1, it would limit that advertising window to two months. This can be done, he said, referencing one of the most recent searches he conducted, for Bainbridge-Guilford. Tammaro said 35 applications were received for the position, which was advertised for a period of two months.
