Is Fifth Time The Charm? Cooperstown School District Hires New Principal

Cooperstown Central School, a district that has struggled to get the right Principal in place at the Jr./Sr. High School for a variety of reasons has announced that they now have a new Principal. According to the district, the Cooperstown Board of Education announced at the July 6 board of education meeting that they had hired Owen K. Kelso from Ulster County to take on the 12-month Principal position with an up to 4-year probationary period that begins on July 12.

Kelso most recently served as Assistant Principal in the New Paltz Central School District. School officials state that the search for a new Principal in the district was a very thorough, national search and out of the qualified pool of applicants Mr. Kelso was selected as the best fit for what the district was looking for.

This hire comes after a quiet dismissal of former Cooperstown Jr./Sr. High School Principal Karl O’Leary who was hired by the district in July of 2021 and then was fired on March 18 of this year.  O'Leary was the fourth consecutive Cooperstown principal to stay less than a year. The reason he was dismissed was never released by the district. Commenting on the lack of information released, Superintendent Sarah Spross said “process prohibits me from answering questions about employees".

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Is the fifth time the charm for the Cooperstown School District when it comes to the Principal position? Will Kelso be what the district needs and wants? Only time will tell and hopefully, he is up for the challenges that lay ahead as he serves in his new position in Cooperstown schools.