BERNE — With nearly all of his children through school, Timothy Mundell thought it was a good time to become a superintendent.

Monday, the Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board, after two years of interim leaders, appointed Mundell as superintendent with no naysayers.

At 53, Mundell has spent much of his career downstate in administrative roles and has aspired to be a superintendent.

“I’m an upstater,” said Mundell. “I grew up in Ballston Spa and met my wife in Oneonta.”

Two of his daughters are adults with careers, and his son is graduating from high school this year. A fourth child, a daughter in eighth grade, will soon be entering high school. Mundell said his family will settle in the area, but he isn’t yet sure in what district.

“We’ll go as long as I want, as long as the board will have me,” Mundell said of his time at BKW. “I told them I’ll stay as long as they’ll have me.”

Stability and improving academic performance were important themes in the selection process this spring.

BKW has experienced a period of high turnover in its top positions, now led by its second one-year interim superintendent, Dr. Joseph Natale. Three weeks ago, the board hired a permanent high-school principal, Marna Meltzer McMorris, after an interim administrator filled in after the district’s longest-serving principal left to become superintendent of Jefferson Central School in Schoharie County.

Earlier this month, Elementary school Principal Audrey Roettgers submitted her resignation, after two years at BKW. Calls to her office were not returned.

Having studied organizational leadership at Northcentral University for his doctorate, Mundell likes to think in terms of “human resources” and thinks he fits the criteria for consistent leadership for that reason.

“Experience tells you, when you have a team, the people who are part of that team have a clear understanding, a clear picture for what the goals are and what that purpose is, there’s a spirit and camaraderie that develops and that’s part of what I’m going to try to do is take some of this change that’s happened over the past six years and create some stability,” said Mundell.

Asked what could be done to lengthen the time leaders work for the district, Mundell said that environment of working with a team could indeed make BKW a more attractive place to stay.

In the coming months, Mundell said, he will not be making plans for things to change, but listening to staff, to hear the good and the bad. He officially assumes his role on July 1.

 “Everybody’s been very pleasant and really optimistic,” Mundell said. “And, to me, that tells you something about the place.”

He added, “I think it’s a unique trait in the community."