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Syracuse schools superintendent loses support of board member

Ryan Delaney
/
WRVO
Syracuse public school Superintendent Sharon Contreras. (file photo)

The superintendent of the Syracuse school system has lost the support of one of the district's school board members. But it's likely not enough dissent to force Sharon Contreras out of her job. 

Syracuse School Board member Max Ruckdeschel spoke out at their annual meeting Tuesday evening. To other board members' surprise, he says he can no longer blindly support the superintendent's administrative appointments.

"I've gone along with them, I've voted in favor of them under the philosophy that you hire the superintendent to make those kinds of appointments and you have to trust her judgments," he said to WRVO afterward.

But after two years on the board, he said, a recent appointment reached the limit of what he could go along with.

"This just was the point where I stopped trusting the superintendent’s judgment and to me, that said ‘okay, I think we need to consider whether or not the superintendent we have is the superintendent we need going forward,'" he said.

He wouldn't identify which hire he opposed. The board approved four hires or position transitions Tuesday. Only one was an outside hire.

One other board member, David Cecile, voted against the appointments, but did not go so far as to call for Contreras' removal. 

Contreras did not respond to the comments during the meeting. She was unavailable for comment afterward.