By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – After “a few wrinkles,” the Potsdam Central School Board of Education has announced its choice as the new district superintendent, Potsdam High School Principal Joann Chambers.

There were “a few wrinkles along the way,” school board president Pat Turbett said, after the announcement at a board meeting Tuesday night.

“She is an exceptional choice. I think Joann will do a very good job,” Turbett said.

When former superintendent Pat Brady announced he was leaving the Potsdam job for the superintendent’s position at Massena Central School, the search for a new school chief for Potsdam began.

“We advertised for a superintendent, with the help of BOCES, because they have a lot of experience with this,” Turbett said.

“We narrowed the candidate pool to four or six, and then two finalists, one internal and one external.”

The internal candidate was Chambers, and the external candidate was Secondary Principal Bradley Zilliox of the Wheatland-Chili Central Schools in Scottsville.

“Then the external candidate pulled out, so we looked again at the pool and our options,” Turbett said, knowing that the process would be delayed. “We interviewed Joann again.”

“We’re confident putting her forward. The end of the school year is not the best time to be doing this. It adds to the time the whole process takes. We would have liked to make the announcement before the end of the school year.”

Joann Chambers has been Potsdam’s high school principal since 2008; before that, beginning in 2004, she was the elementary school principal. She began her teaching career in 1987 at Lowville Academy before moving to A.A. Kingston Middle School in 1994 as a 7th grade English teacher.

Chambers will start her new job, at an annual salary of $120,000, on Aug. 10, “but she will still be principal for a time,” Turbett said. That’s because by law a person in a position such as principal must give a district 30 days notice. That also means the board has not yet started to look for a new high school principal, “because the position wasn’t open. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to move quickly” once the normal process was upset by the withdrawal of the second superintendent candidate.

“We hope to avoid another interim as much as possible. We’re hoping to have another principal appointed by September, but that would be hard,” Turbett said. That’s in part because of the 30 days notice that anyone chosen would have to give the district they are now working for.

But Turbett said he is grateful to have former superintendent for Brasher Falls Central School District working as Potsdam interim chief during the transition from Pat Brady to Joann Chambers.

“It’s been really good. His knowledge of the county and the state education system is making the transition much easier. It’s good to have as much overlap as we will have.”

Chambers was not available to speak Wednesday, as she is away at a professional conference.

“Joann is very active professionally,” Turbett said. “She goes to lots of workshops and conferences, and is always looking for new ways to do things. She’s still learning, and that’s a strength.”