Worcester Central School’s new superintendent is traveling 2,500 miles to take the job.
The school board in late June appointed Tim Gonzales of Arizona as executive principal to begin July 30.
Mr. Gonzales will replace Bill Diamond, who resigned as superintendent in March.
As executive principal, Mr. Gonzales will have time to complete his New York superintendent certification, which is expected in December, according to a Worcester press release.
Ed Shultis, who’s been the interim superintendent since Mr. Diamond resigned, will stay on part-time until Mr. Gonzales completes his certification.
Although he’s coming from Arizona, Mr. Gonzales, 43, grew up in Upstate New York, attending North Syracuse schools and earned a degree at the college of St. Rose.
He taught four years at Colonie schools before moving to Arizona. For the past four years, Mr. Gonzales has been executive director at Paradise School about 30 miles north of Phoenix.
Arizona has public schools, publicly funded charter schools, private schools and private charter schools. Paradise is a public charter school, Mr. Gonzales said in a phone interview.
He still has family in Upstate New York, Mr. Gonzales said, and he’s looking forward to coming back.
Paradise has 2,600 students, and Mr. Gonzales doesn’t believe leading a school of less than one-quarter of that number will be an issue.
He’s pleased with the prospect, in fact.
“In a small school, there’s an opportunity to make strong relationships with students and make connections with families,” Mr. Gonzales said.
And anyway, he’s had experience with small schools. When Paradise opened, he said, it had only 37 high school students.
“You try to make a small school feel like a big school with all the amenities,” Mr. Gonzales said.
“Size doesn’t necessarily dictate the thought and ingenuity behind it.”
He listed his strengths as directing capital projects, establishing relations with the community and dealing with all types of students.
At Paradise, Mr. Gonzales’ worked with students ranging from at-risk students to well-off suburban kids.
“I’ve been successful with pretty much every group I’ve work with,” he said.
“And I’m really looking forward to coming to Worcester.”
Mr. Gonzales has a daughter, 10, who’ll be a student at Worcester.