Superintendent found for L. Merion schools

After a national superintendent search of more than a year, Montgomery County's Lower Merion School District is set to name a local educator as its next leader.

Christopher McGinley, executive director of the Delaware County Intermediate Unit, will be named at a school board meeting Monday night, Board President Diane DiBonaventuro said in an e-mail to the district's staff yesterday.

District spokesman Douglas Young said McGinley's salary would not be made public until he was hired. The current superintendent, Jamie Savedoff, was paid $221,500 in the 2006-07 school year.

DiBonaventuro said in her e-mail that McGinley would start "at the conclusion of the school year," which ends June 30. Savedoff will stay until then.

McGinley was Delaware County Intermediate Unit executive director for two years; from 1999 to 2006 he was an assistant superintendent and later the superintendent in Montgomery County's Cheltenham Township School District. He also held a variety of leadership positions during 18 years with the School District of Philadelphia, including stints as an elementary school and middle school principal, a cluster leader, and the district's executive director of leadership development.

He began his career as a teacher of students with multiple handicaps and of children with learning disabilities and emotional problems in Philadelphia.

"Throughout the interview process, Dr. McGinley impressed us with his passion and enthusiasm for public education, his depth of knowledge in the field, and his strong commitment to ensuring the success of all students," DiBonaventuro's e-mail said.

Savedoff, who came to the 6,900-student Lower Merion district in May 2003 from New Jersey's East Brunswick district, announced in February 2007 that he would retire when his contract expired last February. He agreed to stay on while the school board completed the search.