Superintendent Teplesky resigns

Superintendent vaults to Ravena

Superintendent Daniel Teplesky confirmed Monday that he will be leaving the Granville School District for the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk School District in July.

Teplesky will be taking charge of a district with about 2,200 students in four buildings and will have an assistant superintendent for curriculum as a part of his staff.

“I notified the Granville School Board on Saturday that a contract had been worked out between attorneys, and the board of the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk School District has scheduled a special meeting for tonight when they will appoint me as their next Superintendent,” Teplesky said Monday. 

Teplesky declined when asked to provide further details on the new position, such as salary and benefits, until after he had signed the new contract, saying he would provide those details after making the new position official.

“It breaks our hearts to leave, it really does,” Teplesky said after the board meeting and executive session. “We’ve made a lot of good friends and acquaintances …and a few enemies.”

Teplesky also said he would not officially resign his position with Granville until after he had signed the new contract some time in the next few days.

“We wish him well,” Granville School Board President Kathy Nelson said. “It’s always a hard job to bring in a new Superintendent, it’s a big process. The district superintendent is moving on and he’s usually very instrumental in the process so we don’t know what will happen with that process yet.”

Nelson said details of the search would be forthcoming.

“It’s very sad because he’s done a lot for this district,” board member Pam Tatko said after executive session.

“That’s life. Change is going to happen,” board member John Steves said. “Change has come and we’re going to have to deal with it but I do not look forward to the hiring process – it’s tedious, it’s long and it’s going to be hard to find a good fit for Granville.”

“We’re really going to miss him; he’s done a lot of good things in this district. He always has a positive attitude with a lot of good visibility in the community and with sports and he had good interaction with the students,” Nelson said.

“He had good business acumen and helped us in that department a lot,” Nelson said. “I know that’s what Ravena was looking for, I went on the website and they were looking for someone with curriculum and business expertise – I think it will be a good fit for him.” 

“So we’ll miss him and we’ll move on,” she said. 

Nelson said Teplesky didn’t want to move on, but said he cited career goals in terms of salary levels that he knew this community could not reach or support.

Board vice president Tamme Taran said “We’re disappointed and sad to see him leave. I don’t know any details yet about what our plan is going to be or how we’re going to progress (in a search). Dan’s done a lot of good thing to get this district moving in the right direction. It will be a loss for this district, I’m sure.”