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The Syracuse City School District could wrap up its search for a new superintendent by next month, said Anthony Davis, the district’s interim superintendent.

Previous superintendent Jaime Alicea retired at the end of the 2021-22 school year after working in the district for 39 years, the last six of those years as superintendent. The district appointed Davis interim superintendent in May. Administrators said the incoming superintendent has to both be forward-thinking and understanding of Syracuse’s high child poverty rate.

“Syracuse is very unique,” SCSD Board of Education President Tamica Barnett said. “We want a candidate that is going to be comfortable (and) used to dealing with a diverse environment.”

In July, the district’s Board of Education hired Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, a national educational consulting firm, to search for a new superintendent.

According to their website, HYA “brings together local knowledge with nationally accepted best practices to support (districts).”

Alongside HYA, the Board of Education did an international search for candidates and received roughly 40 applications for the position, Barnett said, many of whom weren’t from New York state.

Both Barnett and Davis said candidates submitted resumes and went through a series of interviews. Despite Davis working as the acting superintendent, he said he is going through the same process as the other candidates.

“I feel privileged and honored to be here since I graduated from these schools,” Davis said. “In order to follow the process, I needed to apply as well.”

While he has been employed by the district since 1987, Davis said he would be “okay” with whatever decision the district makes. He began working for the SCSD as a teaching assistant at Henninger High School, worked in the Liverpool Central School District and later returned to SCSD to serve as an assistant superintendent until his retirement in 2019.

Barnett said the permanent superintendent must be willing to collaborate with a city that has high crime rates and, as a sanctuary city, is home to many immigrants.

SCSD itself is also going through a transition, adding a new science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics high school. The New York Assembly first authorized the school in June 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic initially delayed its opening plans.

The STEAM high school will be a located at the old Central Tech High School in downtown Syracuse and may be able to open its doors for the 2024-25 school year.

The next superintendent must be “forward-thinking” with the addition of the new school, Barnett said during the district’s board meeting on Oct. 12.

According to the district’s website, the “successor superintendent” will start on Jan. 1, 2023.

“The district is in a really good place, so whatever superintendent we get, hopefully, they can just merge in with us and keep the ball rolling,” Barnett said.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, the educational status of the new STEAM high school was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on October 18, 2022 at 11:46 pm

Contact Benjamin: beschill@syr.edu