District Hiring Firm for Principal Search

The Katonah Lewisboro school district is considering two firms to oversee the hiring of a new John Jay High School principal with the goal of hiring one later this month and selecting a candidate by early spring.

The timeline is aggressive and should yield more and better candidates than last year’s process, according to Paul Kreutzer, superintendent of schools.

“We never had a prime season [for interviewing candidates] last year when we started in January,” he said.

The new principal will fill the position left by Ellen Doherty, who stepped down last April. In addition, the district is seeking a new guidance director to replace Christopher Griffin, who resigned over the summer.

Scott Persampieri, assistant superintendent for human resources, said the firm would meet with the district and stakeholder groups “get a sense of our vision” for a principal.

Board member Stephanie Tobin asked if the individuals would be the same people who participated in last year’s search.

“I’m not sure who you used last year,” he said, “but we will involve parents, teachers, staff at the high school and certainly students will be an important part of the process.”

Kreutzer added that the final candidate “will have seen us and people in the community several times.”

 Persampieri said that the search for a new guidance director will follow a similar process but will be conducted by district administrators. “Just like our search for a principal, we want to fill [the job] in an aggressive timeline,” he said.