Brewster School Board Picks New Superintendent
The Brewster Board of Education tapped a new superintendent of schools during its meeting last week as the community will welcome an outsider to the role for the first time in several years.
Dr. Laurie Bandlow, who is the superintendent at the Paulsboro school system in New Jersey, will assume the job as Brewster school chief on Aug. 1 after her unanimous appointment to the post during last Tuesday’s board meeting. Bandlow will take the reins from Dr. Valerie Henning, who will be moving on to another Hudson Valley school system over the summer.
Bandlow’s contract last until July 31, 2022 and she will be paid $225,000 annually.
“Through my visits and conversations, it’s become very clear to me that Brewster is a very special place,” Bandlow said in a press release. “I know that working with the Board of Education, parents, teachers, and administrators, we can make a difference in the lives of children.”
In a press release, board president Sonia Mesika said that Bandlow showed strength in working with the community at large and school community. Bandlow’s flexibility, vision, and collaborative and caring nature fit Brewster well, Mesika said.
Hiring Bandlow comes after the previous two school chiefs — Henning and former superintendent Tim Conway — were hired for the role after already serving in the Brewster administration. Both had been the second in command before getting the top job. (Henning will now become the new school chief for the Hastings school district this summer.)
Bandlow will enter a school district that has had its fair share of tension and downright anger from community members that complained the school board and administrators were lacking in transparency. The discontent was so palpable that the first proposed budget put forth last school year was rejected even though it was below the New York State tax cap.
While Bandlow might be an outsider, she has Hudson Valley roots, growing up in Warwick in Orange County and beginning her teaching career at Warwick Middle School.
Then in New Jersey, Bandlow was also an elementary school and middle school principal for the Howell school system and teacher and assistant principal in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in Princeton. She has been a Lead Science Teacher, contributor to a National Science Foundation grant, and Governor’s Convocation Teacher of the Year in New Jersey.
Mesika, in an interview, said Bandlow’s level of experience helped separate her from the rest of the applicants for the job.
“We just felt that she had a little bit more experience and more well rounded experience,” Mesika said. “Our focus in our district is always to think of the education for all students, how can we best balance for all kids.”
When asked about selecting someone from outside the district, Mesika said the board always tries to keep a fair process in place whether it gets applicants from inside or outside the district. Finding an external candidate wasn’t the board’s target, Mesika said.
“We always try to adhere to a fair and thorough process who the candidates are in the pool,” Mesika said. “It was just really looking at the needs of the students, needs of the district and making sure the candidate coming in next could fulfill those needs whoever that candidate would be.”
