By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – Stephen M. Putman, the former superintendent for Brasher Falls Central School District, is being hired by Potsdam Central Schools to be their interim superintendent.

Putman, now a St. Lawrence County legislator representing Canton, is not likely to be in that position long. He will start June 29, allowing a couple of days of transition as current PCS Superintendent Patrick Brady prepares to take over as chief of schools in Massena July 1 while the Potsdam school board interviews candidates to replace him there permanently.

It’s possible, Brady said, that the board might make an appointment at their June 9 meeting.

“However, many candidates have obligations to their current districts into August, so we anticipate the new person won’t be on board until August,” Brady said.

Putman will be paid $600 per day until his replacement is on the job.

The board of education also appointed another experienced educator to take over as principal at Lawrence Avenue Elementary School once current principal Larry Jenne steps down at the end of this school year.

Shannon Pitcher-Boyea lives in Malone. She comes to Potsdam with 10 years of experience teaching elementary grades in Franklin County and seven and a half years in administrative posts, the last being principal at the elementary and middle schools in Keene.

She has also served as special education supervisor for St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES, “so she’s not new to the area and to educators here,” Brady said. “She’s known here. She was a strong candidate. She has an excellent background in reading and elementary education.”

She begins in her new post July 9.