A new principal at Gansevoort Elementary School and a new head of Rome Free Academy’s Air Force Junior ROTC program are up for appointments by the Board of Education.
The new Gansevoort principal is recommended to be Kathy Bragan, the school district’s assistant director of support services.
Meanwhile, the recommended new aerospace science instructor to lead RFA’s highly regarded JROTC program is Col. Ian Sanderson, who is retiring from the Eastern Air Defense Sector at Griffiss park.
Resolutions for the appointments are on the board’s agenda for its meeting Wednesday night at the district office, 409 Bell Road. The board will cover its agenda in open session at about 7 p.m., following a 6 p.m. executive session to discuss confidential matters.
On the agenda:
• Bragan’s appointment would be for a probationary period from Jan. 4, 2010, through Jan. 3, 2013. Her salary would be $84,000, up from her current salary of about $78,000. She would succeed Karen Miller, who transferred from Gansevoort last summer to become principal of Staley Upper Elementary School. Gansevoort’s interim principal is Naz Fiore, a retired district administrator.
Bragan, a Canastota resident who is married to Canastota school Superintendent Frederick Bragan, joined the district’s support services/special education department in November 2007 after previously holding positions at Madison-Oneida BOCES as assistant director of alternative education and as special education coordinator.
About 80 applicants including internal and external candidates applied for the Gansevoort position, and about six finalists were interviewed by a committee including administrators, teachers and other staff, said Director of Employee Relations Frank Conestabile.
Board approval of Bragan’s appointment is anticipated, said board President Patricia Riedel. Bragan "brings...a good amount of expertise to Gansevoort," she commented, citing Bragan’s knowledge of children with disabilities and her work with lower-income families. She added that Bragan would be a "good fit" at Gansevoort. The 758 W. Liberty St. school includes grades K-4, with an enrollment of nearly 360.
• Sanderson’s appointment in the JROTC program would be effective Jan. 4, 2010 at a salary of $75,000, funded in equal parts by district and Air Force money plus a federal grant. Sanderson, who currently is deputy commander, support, at EADS, would succeed Col. Frederick Wieners, whose retirement from the JROTC position effective Dec. 23 also is on the board agenda.
Wieners has led the JROTC program during its five-plus years at RFA, in which it has been recognized for its achievements and rapid growth. The program, which has about 152 RFA student cadets enrolled, received an "Exceeds Standards" rating in a 2008 Air Force evaluation.
Sanderson was recommended by Wieners, said Riedel. The selection process involved district Superintendent Jeffrey P. Simons and RFA Principal Mark Benson, she said, and Conestabile said Air Force officials also took part.
Wieners has "gone above and beyond to make the program what it is," said Riedel, who added that Sanderson as his recommended choice will "probably follow right along in his footsteps...continue to make it a successful program."
Sanderson has been at EADS since 1998 after a prior 1994-97 assignment there, and among his earlier duties he was a B-52 radar navigator at the former Griffiss Air Force Base. In 2001 he was a lieutenant colonel at the EADS facility, then known as NEADS (Northeast Air Defense Sector), when it was at the center of the U.S. response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. EADS monitors air traffic and coordinates air defense over the eastern half of the U.S.
Wieners previously sought to retire last year when retired Air Force Col. Lansing E. Dickinson of Texas was appointed to lead RFA JROTC effective in July 2008. But Dickinson resigned before starting the job, and Wieners remained involved.
