FRANCINE SHEA

BY ROBERT L. BAKER

The Mountain View School Board voted Wednesday night to appoint Francine Shea, aBuffalo,N.Y., native with 25 years experience as an educator, as its district superintendent effective July 1.

She will replace Andrew  Chichura, who has been superintendent since 2006 and also served in that capacity from 1984 to 1996.

She was at the meeting and introduced to those in the audience.

Board president Todd Adams said Tuesday (May 30) that Mrs. Shea’s salary would be set once a contract had been finalized.

It was done so Monday night when the board agreed to pay her a salary of $100,000 a year.

Mrs. Shea holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and advanced study certifications in supervision and administration from SUNY-Buffalo, in superintendent development from SUNY-Oswego, and in school business administration from SUNY-Brockport.

She most recently served as Director of Math, Science and Technology for the 4,300-pupilEastGreenbushCentralSchool District. Mrs. Shea previously served as superintendent of the Beaver River Central School District which had around 950 students, about 200 fewer than Mountain View.

The board on Wednesday also approved a tentative budget of $16.7 million for 2012-13 that calls for a real estate tax of 35.0889 mills, an increase of 0.7889 mills over last year. Chichura said there would be no furloughs as the district had 12 announced retirements this spring. He anticipated there would be some recalls of teachers furloughed last year.

The budget will be presented for final approval at the regular school board meeting scheduled for 7 p.m., June 25.