New Gilford principals announced

The School Board has announced that Dr. Jack Billings will be the next principal of the Elementary School and Marcia Ross will be the new principal of the Middle School. The two will officially take their posts in July of this year, taking over from retiring administrators Sandra McGonagle and James Kemmerer.

Ross will be a familiar face at the Middle School, where she served as assistant principal until the mid-1990s. She left to become principal of Oyster River Middle School in Durham, where she's been for nearly 13 years. Her professional experience also includes teaching at the middle school level and serving as an adjunct professor at the University of New Hampshire. She lives in Gilford with her husband Rusty, who is the principal of Kingswood Regional Middle School in Wolfeboro. Her granddaughter is due to attend Gilford Elementary in a couple of years.

Billings, currently the principal of Maimonides Jewish Day School in Brookline, Mass., has 28 years of professional experience on his resume. He's served in administrative positions in several Boston-area schools, and teaches teachers-to-be at the college level. Billings and his wife Cheryl look forward to relocating to the region.

An ad hoc search committee narrowed the list of applicants down to two finalists for each position. Community forums were held at each school where the public was permitted to meet and query the finalists, after which the School Board performed its final interviews and made its choice.

In a statement released yesterday, School Board Chairman Sue Allen said, "Both Jack and Marcia received exceedingly high praise from all constituent groups on the feedback forms resulting from the Candidates' Forums." Allen said the board was pleased to bring two principals into the district, each one bringing "excellent leadership qualities" and a depth of professional experience.