Sylvia Root in 2011 (from The Evening Sun newspaper)
JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown School Board has appointed an interim superintendent to manage the school after current Superintendent Tim Mains leaves the district at the end of February.
School officials announced on Thursday night that Sylvia Root will serve as the interim superintendent. Root served as the superintendent of Potsdam Central School in Northern New York until her retirement in 2005. Since then, she has assisted various school districts on an interim basis, including Springville-Griffin Institute Central School District in Erie County. Root is from Arcade, NY.
According to the Post-Journal, Root has said her first priority is to familiarize herself with the Jamestown district and to also begin work on the 2017-18 budget.
While Root will serve on the interim superintendent, the school board must now begin the process of finding a new, permanent superintendent. To assist with the search, the school board approved appointing Erie-2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES Superintendent David O’Rourke as search consultant.
Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Tim Mains
Meanwhile, Mains has also requested the board waive the requirement that he give 60-days notice before leaving the district. On Wednesday, mains was appointed the new superintendent for Pine Bush School District, in the lower Hudson Valley region of the state. As a result his last day in Jamestown will be February 26. According to the Post-Journal, Mains said the Pine Bush school district originally approached him about the position.
As for his reason for leaving Jamestown, he said it was a mutual decision between him and the school board.
In the coming weeks, Mains said he will work with Root to ease the transition process. While he will be finished at the Jamestown school district on Feb. 26, Mains said he is not completely leaving the area.
Mains also reportedly will also continue to have a presence in the Jamestown area, saying he looks forward to continuing relationships he’s established and will enjoy coming to Chautauqua County in the summer. His final board meeting will be Feb. 14.
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