School district business manager leaving

The school district suddenly finds itself needing to fill two top administrator positions.

In the wake of Superintendent Seth Turner tendering his resignation last week, district Business Manager Lissa Jilek has announced she, too, is leaving.

Jilek submitted her resignation Tuesday, the same day she was hired as business manager of the Highland school district.

“We can fill it with interim appointments,” Saugerties school board President Robert Thomann said of the job Jilek is vacating. “... Sometime later in July, we’ll probably have a meeting ... to see how we’re going to go about the search.”

Jilek’s resignation is effective Sept. 30, and she’s to start the Highland job the following day. Her Saugerties salary is $114,322 per year. In Highland, she’ll be paid $128,000.

Jilek could not be reached for comment Thursday.

A graduate of North Adams State College in Massachusetts, Jilek was hired as the Saugerties school district business manager in 2013 after holding the same position for the Cairo-Durham school district since 2007. Prior to that, she was business manager for the Catskill Central School District from 2000 to 2007.

Turner, who’s been Saugerties superintendent since 2009, submitted his resignation last Wednesday. He’s leaving to become superintendent of the Amagansett Union Free School District at the eastern end of Long Island.

Turner began working for the Saugerties district in 1997 as a special education teacher, became an assistant principal in 2000 and principal of Grant D. Morse Elementary School in 2003.