BERNE — Not long before the  Berne-Knox-Westerlo school district plans to conclude its search for a  new secondary school principal, it finds itself having to open another search for a principal  for its elementary school.

After one year on the job, Leslie Smith has resigned as elementary school principal to  become principal at Bradt Primary School — a school for kindergartners, first-, and second garders in the Mohonasen school district where her family resides. The district serves Rotterdam but also enrolls some students from the towns of  Guilderland and Colonie.

“If we had our druthers,” said BKW Superintendent Timothy Mundell in praising Smith, “we would want her to stay for a good long time.

“Leslie was a wonderful fit for our school,” he said. “She will always have a place in our community.”

Smith was a “skilled administrator” who excelled at working with teachers and strengthening the curriculum during her brief tenure, Mundell said.

The BKW Elementary school has about 500 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

Smith told The Enterprise that her decision to leave BKW “did not come easily, but you never know what opportunities will come along.”

Career choices, she said, always involve a balance between the professional and personal. On the personal side of the ledger for her is a shorter commute, she said, and more time with her two young daughters, one of whom is in second grade at Bradt Primary.  The second-grader told her mother when she heard the news, “Mommy you’re going  to be at all the morning programs [for parents] now!”

She had only praise for the district she is leaving: “Dr. Mundell is a great leader who puts students first,” she said.

The elementary school she will leave on Oct. 20, she said,  “has a wonderful staff of teacher leaders who will continue to work on new initiatives now in place.”

Among them, she said, is a “revamped” sixth grade math curriculum with more rigorous standards, computer-coding, and real-world math applications. A new trimester report-card, she said, better aligns with Common Core standards and “will provide parents with better information” on their children's’  progress.

Also underway are changes in the writing program to align it with Common Core standards, she said.

BKW Elementary, Smith said, has also met its goal of becoming an “all-inclusive” school, meaning special-education students are now fully included in regular classrooms, using the co-teaching method.

Search ends, search begins

In June, Marna McMorris tendered her resignation as secondary school principal for reasons not disclosed. Since then, the district has reopened the search for a successor to her, after an initial search came up dry

Mundell told The Enterprise that the reopened search has yielded two good candidates and “we are prepared to make an offer.” He said he hopes the appointment of a new secondary school principal will happen at the next board of education meeting, scheduled for Oct. 17.

Smith and McMorris are the latest in a strong of administrators to leave BKW after just a year or two. Mundell is starting his second year as the superintendent.