The Ligonier Valley School Board has less than five months to select someone to succeed Christine Oldham as superintendent.

The board, at its February meeting, approved Oldham’s retirement, effective June 30.

Oldham said her decision to end her stint at Ligonier Valley was a bittersweet one.

“I’m excited about what the future holds, but at the same time, I am truly going to miss the people who have made my 13 years in (the district) such a blessing,” she said. “There really is something special about our 234 square miles. As exciting as retirement is, it is going to be difficult to leave.”

“We’re really going to miss her,” said school board President Jack McDowell. A Ligonier Valley graduate and former teacher in the district for more than 30 years, he said he ranks Oldham at the top of the superintendents he’s known.

McDowell wants Oldham’s successor to carry on with the educational legacy she’s leaving behind.

“Her leadership has been very forward-thinking,” he said.

He cited a customized learning approach Oldham introduced that allows students to progress at their own pace, with support from a teacher or learning coach.

“No learner moves on until they’ve mastered what they need to be able to master the next skill,” he explained.

Annie Urban, vice president of the school board, said Oldham demonstrated an ability to bring together parents and others in the community to support local education.

“She took on a lot of really big initiatives and helped to carry them through,” Urban said.

That began with the closure of Laurel Valley Middle/High School, at the northern end of the district, and its consolidation with corresponding Ligonier-area schools. That process was completed just a few years after Oldham joined the district, in 2008.

Her career in education began in 1988, when she taught at an elementary school in Delaware, and continued with assistant principal and principal roles at elementary schools in the Johnstown area, where she grew up. Before coming to Ligonier Valley, she served as the superintendent of Ferndale Area School District for about five years.

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