Trumansburg school district continues superintendent search

The Trumansburg Central School District (TCSD) is moving forward with its search for a new superintendent.

The search comes after Superintendent Kimberly Bell announced in September that she was retiring. Her last day is scheduled for January 10, 2025. 

“After 13 years of the honor and privilege to lead and serve this district alongside you, I have

made the difficult decision to transition into retirement,” Bell wrote in a letter to parents. “While I truly love the work, the people, and this wonderful community, my family is embarking on new life adventures that I deeply wish to be part of.”

Bell’s announcement comes months after the district went through a difficult budget season, with hopes   of approving a belt-tight spending plan for next year’s school year that didn’t sacrifice educational offerings. District officials could face a budget shortfall in years to come as diminished enrollment and a potential loss of state funding could paint a dire picture for TCSD’s financial future.

The district’s board of education accepted Bell’s retirement at their Sept. 17 meeting. 

“We would like to congratulate [Bell] on her upcoming plans for retirement and appreciate the 30 years of service she has given to New York State public education,” the board wrote in a letter to parents. “We are grateful for the work she has done for Trumansburg over the last 13 years. Her

dedication, leadership and vision will have a lasting impact on our students and school

community. We wish her well as she transitions into retirement and all of her future endeavors.

We look forward to continuing to work with [Bell] over the coming months as we search for

her replacement.”

To conduct the search for a new superintendent, TCSD has enlisted the help of 

Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga (TST) BOCES District Superintendent Lily Talcott as a consultant. Talcott is also the CEO of TST BOCES and has experience with staff searches for Tompkins County districts in the past.

“As an elected board, we will work collectively with Talcott to ensure that we receive community and other stakeholder input on the characteristics that they would like to see in this leadership role,” the board wrote in the letter. 

Board President Megan Williams updated parents on the search at the Oct. 9 meeting. 

“We invited Ms. Talcott to come to our Sept. 17 meeting. It was nice for her to get to know the community and to also give an overview of the search process,” Williams said. “We learned some of the discussions [that] we had with her when we met earlier in September should have been had in public. So we had the opportunity to address those issues for the public to be able to hear.”

After the meeting, the board sent a survey to community members for feedback on the search for a new superintendent.

“We had 313 responses [to the survey],” Williams said. “That number is higher than I would have guessed. “

Williams added that she wants to request an overall summary of the responses garnered, to share with the community. Board Member Jim Mielty added that he would like to request to view all the raw data collected by the survey.

At the Sept. 17 meeting, Talcott said community members had been clear about some of the qualities they would like to see from the new TCSD chief administrator. 

“High-visibility and strong leadership skills, clear understanding of best diversity, equity, and inclusion models and practices,” she said, referring to the highest priorities the public indicated the incoming superintendent should possess. “They have to be empathetic and caring. Someone who is student-centered.”

Talcott said district’s typically have four options when replacing a superintendent: 

• Promote from within.
• Board-conducted search.
• Outside-consultant assistant search.
• BOCES Superintendent as search consultant — most common in the region.

Community members, Talcott said, will have a chance to provide input on the search along the way. 

For Williams, the prospect of the search is a mixed bag. 

“I have lots of feelings about it,” she said. “I feel kinda sad, but lots of gratitude to [Bell] for all the service she has given to this district. I am nervous and excited at the same time. None of us have been part of a search before. We are all doing this because we care about our district and community. We are learning.” 

Ulysses Connection appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @ezvelazquez.

In brief

The Ulysses Philomathic Library is hosting its “Who Does It Better?” movie versus book series on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 3 p.m. The series pits a book that serves as inspiration for a movie adaptation against each other to determine which medium did it best. This month’s showing will be the movie “The Mummy” (1999) and the book “What The River Knows” by Isabel Ibanez.