Superintendent Terry N. Fralick knows whom he will recommend to the Board of Education to pilot Watertown High School for a year.

He will ask that former Pulaski High School Principal Joseph M. McGrath serve as the high school’s interim principal while a bigger pool of candidates is sought to succeed Principal Lloyd L. Peck, who resigned in June.

“I plan to recommend Mr. McGrath to the position of principal at Watertown High School pending permission from the commissioner to approve a waiver in order for retirees under 65 to receive more than $30,000 a year,” Mr. Fralick said.

Mr. McGrath retired from the Pulaski Academy and Central School District in June 2011. Mr. Fralick noted his choice candidate was Pulaski’s principal and guidance counselor for 30 years, so he has a lot of experience with high school students.

Mr. Fralick said he did not plan to announce his choice for the interim principal because the district has been dealing with the paperwork of getting Mr. McGrath to work in the district for a year. He will address it with the Board of Education at its Aug. 7 meeting.

“It’s been a long process working with” the state Education Department, he said.

Once the district starts looking for a permanent principal, Mr. Fralick said, the administration, faculty and community will be involved in the search.

“We’re going to make this as transparent as possible,” he said. “I think it gives us an opportunity to look up a tenure-track principal during the school year. Quite honestly, Mr. Peck’s official resignation wasn’t until the early part of June. That didn’t give us enough time to look for a principal.”

Mr. Peck served two years as the principal. He was announced as the new Chenango Forks Central School District superintendent in late April and was scheduled to begin working there July 1.

In addition to the short amount of turnaround time from June to August, the district has been wrapped up with new teacher and principal evaluations. Mr. Fralick said he felt there was no time to do a high-quality principal search.

“There’s only so much time during the summer,” he said. “I don’t want to rush into it.”

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer