Dr. Craig J. Tice, an experienced administrator and current superintendent of Marcellus Central School District, was unanimously appointed the new Fayetteville-Manlius district superintendent by the F-M Board of Education on March 30.

Tice, an educator with four college degrees and experience as both a teacher and administrator in districts such as Webster, Skaneateles and Marcellus, was approved for a three-year contract that includes an initial annual salary of $192,000. He will officially begin his new duties on July 1.

“I want to thank the board of education for their vote of confidence and certainly express my enthusiasm to be a part of a district with such rich traditions of student achievement in academics, the arts and athletics,” Tice said at the March 30 meeting. “Truly this district is the envy of Central New York.”

Tice will succeed current superintendent Dr. Corliss Kaiser, who announced in August that she will retire on June 30 after 46 years working in the field of education, including 10 as the F-M superintendent.

The board worked with a consulting team from the Illinois-based search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. The team obtained input from more than 100 people, including focus groups of F-M community members and district staff and students. It used that feedback, as well as responses from an online survey completed by 266 school and community members, to develop a leadership profile that the board used as candidates were screened and interviewed.

Tice was “unanimously chosen from a strong pool of candidates,” said school board President Marissa Joy Mims.

Mims said Tice exhibited the three main qualities that district stakeholders indicated they wanted in the next superintendent: vast experience, strong leadership skills and a background in teaching.

“Craig will be a wonderful addition to our district and our community,” Mims said.

Tice has a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry with a minor in secondary education; a Master of Public Administration, Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; a Master of Science degree in science education from Syracuse University; a Doctorate of Philosophy in science education from Syracuse University; and permanent certification as a School District Administrator and as an instructor of biology, chemistry and general science.

Tice is a former high school science teacher for the Webster Central School District. He also worked 13 years for the Skaneateles Central School District, first as an elementary curriculum coordinator for mathematics, science, health and technology and then as the State Street School principal. Tice was a member of the administrative team at Skaneateles when the school district received the Governor’s Excelsior Award and two buildings earned National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence recognition.

Tice is currently the Marcellus Central School District superintendent, a position he has held since 2006. He also served two years as the Marcellus assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

Tice’s leadership in school improvement extends to both national and statewide organizations.

In New York state, he has served as president of the School Alliance for Continuous Improvement since 2008, in addition to serving as a member of the New York State Council of School Superintendents House of Delegates and the Commissioner’s Advisory Council. In 2012, the New York State Education Department vetted Tice to serve as an Outside Educational Expert with the Binghamton City School District as part of the Diagnostic Tool for School and District Effectiveness Initiative – a school improvement model co-developed at Harvard, Brown, Columbia and Yale universities.

At the national level, Tice was recruited to join select superintendents from across the country to participate on a collaborative panel convened by the American Association of School Administrators. He was also chosen to serve as a commissioner with the Middle States Association. Tice was elected to his first three-year term on the MSA Commission on Secondary Schools where he participated on the PK-12 Membership and Accreditation Committee. Following his re-election to a second term, his peers voted him as the chair-elect of the MSA Commission of Secondary Schools, where he is now participating on the executive, finance and policy/planning committees.

Tice said he has no plans to make immediate changes when he assumes his new post on July 1. “This is a very strong district … one I want to observe for a while at the start,” he said.

Tice’s family includes his wife, Dr. Stacey Lane Tice, and their three children: Megan, Matthew and Molly. Megan is a graduate student in speech language pathology at Nazareth College. Matthew is a junior biomedical engineering major at Syracuse University and Molly is a senior at Marcellus Senior High School.

The Tice family already has some strong ties to the Fayetteville-Manlius community. Dr. Stacey Lane Tice is a Fayetteville-Manlius High School graduate, and the Tices were married in Fayetteville. Matthew played travel soccer with the F-M Tigers (F-M Soccer Club), and Megan participated on F-M Hornets Pop Warner cheerleading teams.

Tice currently lives in Marcellus and plans to relocate to the F-M district.

Jason Emerson is editor of the Eagle Bulletin. He can be reached at [email protected].