The Capital Region Board of Cooperative Educational Services has selected Anita Murphy as its incoming district superintendent. She replaces long-term superintendent Charles Dedrick who retired last July.

Murphy is coming to work with BOCES during an important time. Schools with restricted budgets may rely on shared services through BOCES, she said, and vocational training is being touted as an option to the bachelor’s degree.

“Everybody in the country is realizing career and technical education is growing and needs to grow,” she said.

Murphy said she will begin her new job by looking for what is needed in the BOCES program, by communicating with district superintendents and looking at industry patterns in the area. It doesn’t make sense, she said, to train students in jobs that aren’t available in the area.

In the Capital Region, she said, jobs that appear to be growing include nanotechnology and green technology. Nationally, she said, it is jobs in robotics and computers.

To find out exactly what jobs are available in the area, Murphy said she will work with local chambers of commerce, universities, and other industry experts.

“I have ‘coffee and conversations’ once a month,” said Murphy, adding she opens up her office to speak with anyone willing to.

She is also looking forward to seeing how sharing services can help districts save money and see it go to other school programs.

“I hope I can help,” she said. “I’m really excited.”

Despite the trend of pulling special-education students from BOCES classrooms and integrating them back into their home districts’ classrooms, Murphy said that BOCES is still involved. BOCES instructors and curriculum come to these districts now instead.

Murphy grew up in Binghamton, in Broome County, where she began her career as a teacher and administrator for over a decade before working in the Albany City School District. She later served as the deputy supervisor of the Syracuse City School District for six-and-a-half years and at the Rochester City School District. In between these two positions, she was the associate commissioner at the New York State Department of Education. She last worked as a superintendent at the Altmar-Parish-Williamstown Central School District, a small, rural district in Oswego County.

“I think I have a very unique perspective,” she said. “I’ve worked in all kinds of districts.”

She also enjoyed working in the state education department because she was able to effect change through policy-making. Her new position at BOCES allows her to combine her policy experience with her love of helping students. She also was excited to work in the Capital Region.

“I love the Albany area,” she said. “The Capital Region is the most unique...It encompasses every one the school districts in a concentrated area...you get the microcosm of New York State.”

Murphy was appointed on May 9. She will start serving as superintendent on July 12.