John Sanville will replace Sharon Parker
as superintendent of schools for the Unionville Chadds Ford School District
beginning Sept. 1. The announcement was made during the Aug. 15 School Board
meeting held at Chadds Ford Elementary School. He was given a three-year
contract.

Sanville has been the district’s
curriculum director for the middle and high schools for the last three years.
Before that he was principal at Marple Newtown High School and he has been a social
studies teacher, guidance counselor, dean of students, assistant principal, and
was an officer of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers in Virginia.

Sanville received his doctorate in school
leadership from the University of Virginia, a masters in school Counseling from
Virginia Tech and his bachelors in secondary education from George Washington
University.

Parker, who announced her retirement this
past spring, said Sanville is a good choice who withstood strong competition.

“While Sanville was an excellent and well
qualified candidate, his selection wasn’t a slam-dunk as there were many other
talented applicants.”

The school community signaled their
overwhelming approval of the appointment of Sanville with thundering applause
and several welcoming remarks from district residents including Pat Clark, an
East Marlborough Township resident and president of the U-CF Education
Association that is involved in continuing negotiations for a new teachers’ contract.

“We welcome the appointment of Dr.
Sanville and look forward to moving forward on a fair and equitable contract,
Clark said”.

Sanville will immediately have to address
the contract negotiations, the completion of the massive high school
construction project and the realities of declining revenue brought on by dwindling
state funding, reduced real estate transfer taxes and numerous pending
residential real estate tax appeals cases.

His appointment was the culmination of a
several months long comprehensive regional search conducted by Dr. Joseph
Obrien, Executive Director of the Chester County Intermediate Unit and the district
school board directors.

The vote for Sanville was not unanimous,
however. A dissenting vote came from Paul Price who will be off the board at
the end of the year because he chose not to run for re-election.

In a written explanation of his vote,
which was distributed prior to the board meeting, Price made it very clear
Sanville is an able and talented individual who should make a fine leader to
our district. Price’s vote was based on what he believed to be overly generous
compensation terms in Sanville’s.

"I do not think we needed
to offer more for our next superintendent that we, as citizens of Pennsylvania,
pay to attract a highly qualified governor. There was only one American state
paying its governor more than $180,000 in 2008 and the national average in that
year was $124,398," Price said in the statement.

Price also posted his current report on
the UCFSD teacher contract negotiations on the Internet. See http://www.youtube.com/user/stockdoc9999?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/0/veBoOGoDEGk

Other business

On Saturday morning Sept. 17, the
district will host a community breakfast at the high school cafeteria to bring
the community together to celebrate Parker’s retirement.

“This is an opportunity to honor Dr.
Parker and for the PTO, parents and district employees to express their
personal appreciation for Parker’s service,” said School Board Director Jeffrey
Leiser.