School Districts Tag LaBranche For Final Year

The Windham and Pelham school districts officially extended the contract of Superintendent Henry LaBranche for one more year on May 8, indicating that he will now step down at the end of June 2013.

LaBranche is currently serving as an interim superintendent after coming out of retirement last year.

He said that it wasn't his original plan to stay this long, but he is volunteering to do so.

The alternative was for the towns to quickly hire a superintendent to take over SAU 28 while it is in a busy transition process. 

Next summer, SAU 28 will be split apart, as Windham will become SAU 95.

The LaBranche extension will mean that he will see both towns through that separation process, which Windham School Board Chair Bruce Anderson called an "amicable divorce."

LaBranche will actually provide the bookends for the partnership between the two districts, as he also served as superintendent starting in the mid-1970's when Pelham and Windham split from Litchfield and Hudson.

The long-tenured LaBranche reflected on the past year in the two districts and his effort to get back into the field of education.

"It's been a distinct pleasure to be back," he said. "It was more than just challenging, but clearly both boards – each one of you puts your educational priorities in order and puts kids first."

LaBranche said that the division of labor between himself and Assistant Superintendent Amanda Lecaroz is still in the formative stages.

During a school board meeting last month, he mentioned the idea of him taking the reigns in Windham while Lecaroz handles Pelham during the SAU split.

The boards also said that they will be using New England School Development Council (NESDEC) for the upcoming superintendent searches. 

LaBranche said that he knows of six superintendents that NESDEC has placed within the last 12 months, but added that the pool for the position is not that significant in size.

He said that both boards will want to cater to the specific stakeholders in their districts.

"Obviously both boards will work independently," LaBranche said.

Windham, as discussed in the joint meeting, will try to begin hashing out the credentials of possible candidates around Sept. 1.

The two boards also essentially rehired the entire SAU 28 administration and support staff for the coming year.