Rachel Weisman is reporting for The Columbia Paper the New Lebanon Central School District's upcoming transitions as Superintendent Leslie Whitcomb prepare to retire and Andrew Kourt, current principal of the Walter B. Howard Elementary School, gets ready to take her place. Whitcomb has been with the district for 13 years. “It’s a wonderful district, Whitcomb says. “Parents, teachers–everyone at both our junior/senior high school and our elementary school–is highly collaborative, and they’ve made New Lebanon a great place to have your kids get an education. Our schools are happy buildings.” Before her tenure at New Lebanon, Whitcomb held administrative, teaching and instructional support positions in several districts on Long Island. The New Lebanon district serves 450 students in grades K through 12. “Our students have access to 50 college credits, and 83 percent of our seniors graduate with at least some of these credits. That’s unusual for such a small district,” Whitcomb say. More than 90 percent of NLCSD graduate in four years, reading and math proficiency scores are higher than the state average and the student/teacher ratio is low. Whitcomb officially retires at the end of September; Kourt starts work on October 1. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.