Jaycee Welsh has been chosen as the new superintendent for Tupper Lake Central School District. (Photo provided)

TUPPER LAKE — Tupper Lake schools have a new district superintendent — Jaycee Welsh.

Welsh comes to Tupper Lake from the La Fargeville school district in Jefferson County, where she was an executive principal and director of special education. On Monday, TLCSD board members said several other districts were courting Welsh to be their superintendents and her own district did not want to see her go, but they felt “fortunate” to scoop her up.

The board unanimously voted to appoint Welsh to the district’s top spot on Monday night.

TLCSD board President Jane Whitmore said Welsh has already moved into the district with her husband and is “chomping at the bit, raring and ready to go.”

She’ll officially be released by her current district on July 23 and assume superintendent duties here the next day, but she’s already stopping into the district offices here. In the interim, her predecessor, Russ Bartlett, will stay on as superintendent as a stopgap measure.

After Bartlett announced his plans to retire at the end of this past school year, the TLCSD worked with Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES to search for a new one.

TLCSD board Member Sabrina Shipman said Welsh’s “experience and enthusiasm” is what sold the board on selecting her from the lineup of candidates.

“She’s a young whippersnapper,” Whitmore said.

From their interviews, it appears Welsh knows state policy and law well, and that “she’s all about the kids,” she said.

“I’ve spent my entire life in small communities — I love everything Tupper Lake represents,” Welsh said in a statement. “I look forward to learning and fostering traditions, as well as immersing myself into the school and community. I respect the small town values of Tupper Lake and hope to help build on those for the next generation.”

In her time at La Fargeville, the district saw “significant increases in proficiency rates of grades 3-8 test scores,” a news release from TLCSD reads — that district now has some of the highest scores in several grade levels in the Jefferson-Lewis BOCES region.

“Her steps up the ladder, this was the next logical step,” TLCSD Vice President Jason Rolley said. “From everything we heard … every other district wanting her, she was steps ahead on that staircase above every other candidate in my mind.”

Even more than other candidates who were existing superintendents.

Some former board members and members of the public had voiced concerns about Welsh being a principal and not having the experience needed to lead a district. Shipman said Welsh has been an executive principal, working directly under the superintendent, and that she was being mentored for the La Fargeville superintendent position.

“We stole her,” Rolley said with a smile.

“She told us she wanted Tupper,” TLCSD board Member Mary Ellen Chamberlain said.

On Monday, board members said Welsh did research on Tupper Lake and was reading the news about the district — its budget vote and superintendent search — even before the board members had.

“She came here five hours before her second interview just to talk to people here, on a weekend,” Shipman said. “She wanted this job and you could tell.”

As the La Fargeville internal claims auditor, the school board described Welsh as having a “wealth of experience” in budgeting and Whitmore said references from her current district confirmed to them that she can “do a lot with a little.” This is important in Tupper Lake, where the budget was heavily discussed this spring.

The district’s budget for 2024-25 passed a public vote in April by a slim margin, with 55% of the vote. Voters chose to accept higher taxes for fewer services with the concern that shooting down the budget would result in the district reverting to a contingency budget, with even more cuts to the district’s services. Bartlett said the district likely has years of hard budgetary work ahead of it.

Thirteen people applied for the TLCSD superintendent position. The list was narrowed down to seven, then three, before the finalists went through a gauntlet of interviews with community stakeholder members of the public.

Board members said the response they got from the community interview groups centered on the words “energetic,” “eager” and “compassionate.”

Welsh was offered the job in early June, but it took several weeks to negotiate, finalize and sign her contract.

“There was strong consensus around one candidate,” Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES District Superintendent Dale Breault said in last month.

Whitmore said the search was “tumultuous.”

“A lot of us got beat up over it,” she said Monday. “But I think the end result, we’re going to be very satisfied.”

The process of choosing a new superintendent was complicated by the resignation of school board member Korey Kenniston, who said that he could not endorse any of the three superintendent candidates. At a meeting last month, a parent called for a public forum with the candidates, and a candidate for the position who did not make the final three — who is also Kenniston’s father — criticized the school board for a variety of reasons.

Whitmore said she hopes everyone will be welcoming and supportive of Welsh.

Before becoming the La Fargeville executive principal, Welsh had nine years of experience as an administrator. She also teaches education courses at SUNY Potsdam and Watertown campuses. She has certifications in District Level Education Leadership from Niagara University and Education Leadership from James Madison University.

Bartlett spent four years as TLCSD superintendent. Altogether, Bartlett worked at TLCSD for 30 years, starting as a science teacher in 1994.

On Monday night, Whitmore said Welsh was at a board meeting in La Fargeville giving that district her resignation letter. She said Welsh’s district sounded sorry to see her go.