O’Leary out as CCS Jr/Sr Principal

Cooperstown Central School Junior / Senior High School Principal Karl O’Leary is out seven months into what was his first year at the district, escorted from the building on the afternoon of Friday, March 18.

Superintendent of Schools Sarah Spross told The Freeman’s Journal / Hometown Oneonta the mid-year switch was “not a distraction for faculty, staff, or students” as they returned to the classrooms on Monday, March 21.

“There is a team of teachers and administrators here who are all about the kids,” she said. “They’ve executed graduations, AP exams, Regents exams, state-required exams. I’ve been here for a little more than a year, they’ve been here for years before that. First thing Monday morning I had people coming up to me to say ‘I can help with this’ and ‘let me help you with that.’ The teamwork here is phenomenal.”

The students, she said, are focused more on looking forward to closing out a school year free of the COVID restrictions that limited activity in the last two years.

“They’re so excited about things like the Senior Prom and the class trip,” she said. “Morale and motivation are strong.”

Ms. Spross said she spent Monday meeting with staff across all levels of the school. Her immediate task, she said, is to ensure support for any projects left open prior to Friday’s dismissal.

“Transparency and communication are very important to me,” she said. “We met throughout the day – our core administrative team, the larger administrative team, grade and department chairs. I’m honest when I can answer and honest about the times that process prohibits me from answering.”

Ms. Spross said neither she nor the district’s Board of Education could speak to any details of Mr. O’Leary’s March 18 dismissal but allowed this: “I can assure everyone that there was no safety issue for anyone that needed to be addressed.”

As word spread over social media of Mr. O’Leary’s sudden departure, parents commented on the high turnover rate in the principal’s chair at Cooperstown Junior/Senior High.

“I can’t speak to what happened before I got here,” said Ms. Spross, whose tenure as Superintendent began March 1, 2021. “We’ve been through this before here when our last principal left March 28, 2021, so it’s not the first go-around for me.”

“We want continuity in the administration,” she said, noting the district brought Assistant Principal Amy Malcuria on board in November 2021. “We’ve leveraged administrative tasks across our schools and through our BOCES partnership.”

She said the district follows an “extensive hiring process” for all teachers and administrators, advertising through local, state, and national channels and then following a rigorous interview process.

“A candidate for principal first meets with a seven-member committee of teachers, a parent from the PTA, and administrative and staff support,” she said. “The candidates they approve go on to the superintendent’s panel, which includes Board of Education members, checking professional references, the entire careful and diverse process.”

Their favored candidate in May 2021 ultimately declined the job, citing family relocation concerns; Ms. Spross said the school re-advertised the position in June 2021 and followed the same rigorous interview process.

She said finding and recruiting qualified candidates is an increasingly difficult task for Cooperstown Central and schools throughout the country.

“As you look at recruitment and where we are nationally across the board for schools, it’s a tough challenge,” she said. “There are several leadership posts available right here in this area. The teacher and administrator shortage is a reality for us here in Cooperstown as it is elsewhere.”

COVID, she said, made the task more difficult.

“No one got into teaching or school administration thinking they’d have to become a public health director,” she said. “It has had a huge impact on us.”