10 applicants look to replace M-W superintendent

CENTRAL VALLEY - Ten school administrators, including a Monroe-Woodbury assistant superintendent, have applied to replace Monroe-Woodbury Superintendent Joseph DiLorenzo when he retires at the end of the school year.

The school board has already narrowed the field of contenders by asking Terrence Olivo, a former Monroe-Woodbury superintendent and current chief operating officer for Orange-Ulster BOCES, to screen the applications.

He's recommended the board interview four candidates to head Orange County's second-largest school district.

School board President Michael DiGeronimo said he expects the board to approve a new superintendent at its February meeting.

All 10 applicants are either superintendents or assistant superintendents, including one internal candidate, DiGeronimo said. He wouldn't identify any candidates, but the most likely applicant out of Monroe-Woodbury's three assistant superintendents is Edward Mehrhof, the administrator in charge of human resources.

DiGeronimo said the board will not insist on hiring someone who has already run a school district; more important, he said, is his or her "depth of experience" and ability to "fit in with the culture of the school system."

"We basically feel at this point that the person doesn't have to be a superintendent," he said.

DiLorenzo, who announced his retirement in August, earns $200,000 a year to run a school system with 7,500 students and a $146.8 million budget. He was the superintendent of Port Jervis schools when Monroe-Woodbury hired him in 2006.