Dear GCS Community,

We will be welcoming our new superintendent, Rachel Anderson, on July 13th. While we are excited to have her begin, we also have the bittersweet task of saying farewell to our Assistant Superintendent for Business, Todd Hilgendorff. We are all thrilled to see him begin his new chapter as the Superintendent of Schools for Hudson City School District.

At our business meeting on Monday, June 22nd, we accepted Mr. Hilgendorff’s resignation from both the assistant superintendent role as well as his role as Interim Superintendent. Because of his resignation, our district needs to appoint an Interim Superintendent to bridge the next few weeks until Ms. Anderson officially starts.

Therefore, at that same meeting, the Board appointed Courtney Sayward as Interim Superintendent until July 13th. Ms. Sayward has been an integral part of our district’s leadership team as the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources, and we are grateful for her willingness to step in. Her appointment will allow vital work to continue as we prepare for the summer and the coming school year.

We know that there are a lot of questions and concerns right now because of the changes at the administrative level. We hear your questions and concerns. Sometimes we cannot share information as quickly or as completely as the community may want, but we are working every day to make sure that the district is moving forward. The open positions for high school and elementary school principals were posted and applications are being accepted. Our administration team has been reviewing those applications and scheduling interviews, and we are pleased to see that work continue.

We would like to thank the entire GCS administration team for their diligence and efforts – they lead our district well. We also want to thank all of you for your patience. The Board is tasked with hiring one person – the superintendent. With that complete, the superintendent and administration can carry the remaining hiring decisions forward.

We wish you all a wonderful summer. Although the campus will be quiet without our students and staff, it will still be a busy time as everyone works to complete year end tasks and prepare for the new school year. The district will continue to communicate information to everyone as we go through the summer, and we look forward to seeing you all back in September.

Sincerely,
The GCS Board of Education