The Rockland BOCES Board of Education is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Sarah Chauncey as the agency’s new District Superintendent.
Dr. Chauncey’s appointment was included on the Rockland BOCES Board of Education’s June 3 regular meeting agenda. The Board voted unanimously in favor of the appointment. She will begin her official duties on July 1.
As District Superintendent, Dr. Chauncey will serve as the local representative of the state Commissioner of Education by assisting local school districts in the implementation of the New York State Education Law and the interpretation of the Commissioner’s Regulations and rules of the Board of Regents.
“I could not be more pleased with this decision, for Sarah Chauncey has demonstrated throughout her career the type of strong, effective and thoughtful leadership which will ensure that Rockland County’s eight component school districts continue to be fully supported by Rockland BOCES,” said Rockland BOCES Board of Education President Peggy Zugibe.
Unique to Rockland BOCES, a collaborative leadership model allows the District Superintendent and the Chief Operating Officer to work jointly in assuring that programs and services provided by the BOCES agency are of outstanding quality and meet student and family, as well as school district needs. Additionally, the District Superintendent assists component school districts in the recruitment and selection of School Superintendents, as needed. The District Superintendent is accountable to the nine-member Rockland BOCES Board of Education.
“Dr. Chauncey is a transformational leader who has demonstrable success at the highest levels of school administration,” said Rockland BOCES Chief Operating Officer Dr. Mary Jean Marsico. “Throughout her career, she has been a champion for access, equity and student success, all hallmarks of the Rockland BOCES mission.”
Prior to her appointment to District Superintendent, Dr. Chauncey served as Rockland BOCES Chief Information Officer (CIO), where she directed the daily operations of the agency’s growing Technology Division. While serving in this role, Dr. Chauncey led ongoing efforts to ensure data and infrastructure security, instituted procedures to monitor use of systems software and instructional applications to accurately budget and allocate resources and identified and promoted the use of technologies to positively impact BOCES business operations, instruction and learning.
While serving as Rockland BOCES CIO, Dr. Chauncey also upgraded and streamlined digital technologies between administrative, business, and instructional staff to promote continuous improvement of agency services internally, with external partners and with the extended community.
Prior to her appointment as Chief Information Officer, Dr. Chauncey served as Director of Instructional Technology and Curriculum Development. In this role, she was responsible for identifying and promoting the use of current and emerging technologies to support excellence in instruction and learning. Additionally, Dr. Chauncey developed and maintained applications for data collection, data management and reporting, and introduced and facilitated curriculum mapping to ensure vertical and horizontal alignment curriculum within the agency’s Student Services division. She also provided professional development, common planning, coaching and mentoring in this role, with a focus on curriculum and instruction of students facing social, emotional, behavioral and cognitive learning challenges.
Dr. Chauncey joined Rockland BOCES in 2010 as the Director Information Resources and Learning Technologies. During her decade-long tenure with the agency, she also served as a Library Media Specialist and as a Data Analyst/Professional Development, where she identified technologies and modeled integration to support cross-curricular instruction and learning aligned to the New York State Common Core Standards.
From 2004 to 2010, Dr. Chauncey served as a Library Media Specialist for the East Ramapo Central School District.
A longtime Nanuet resident, Dr. Chauncey has ably served as a member of Nanuet Union Free School District’s Board of Education since 1997. Through several decades, her career has evolved from the world of computer information and systems technology to library science and public education administration. As one of Rockland County’s most experienced school administrators, Dr. Chauncey has developed a variety of curriculum and presented courses for public schools, colleges and business settings across the region.
Dr. Chauncey’s deep administrative, academic and private-sector experience also includes positions as a Graduate-Level Adjunct Instructor McDaniel College in Maryland, Director of Digital Product Development and Training at Benchmark Education and as a Technology Consultant and Trainer for corporate giants Citicorp, Morgan Guaranty, First Boston, Equitable Life Assurance, Newsweek and StarTech Software.
Sarah Chauncey is the author of several publications and dozens of widely cited journal articles including “Can You Hear Us Now: Investigating the Effects of a Wireless Grids Social Radio Station on Collaboration and Communication in Fragile Populations” and “Frictionless learning environments for 21st century education and learning cities: A response to digital inequalities.”
Dr. Sarah Chauncey earned a Doctorate in Information Management from Syracuse University, School of Information Studies (Syracuse, NY), a School District Leadership Certification from the College of St. Rose (Albany, NY), a Master of Science in Educational Leadership from St. Thomas Aquinas College (Sparkill, NY), a Master of Business Administration from New York University, Stern Graduate School of Business Administration (New York, NY), Master of Library Science from the Syracuse University, School of Information Studies (Syracuse, NY) and a Bachelor of Science in Education from the State University of New York at Oneonta (Oneonta, NY).
Sarah and Stephen Chauncey are the proud parents of two grown children, Charles and Juliana.
Dr. Chauncey succeeds Dr. Charlene Jordan, who retired as Rockland BOCES District Superintendent in January 2019.
The search for a new District Superintendent began last summer, with the position listed with several national and state professional organizations and advertised in several print and online publications. The search process was guided by feedback received through a community survey that drew nearly 500 responses from area board of education members, school administrators, BOCES employees, community members, business, industry and higher education partners and others. During the search process, several strong candidates interviewed with the Rockland BOCES Board of Education, as well as with the superintendents of the component school districts.