Dr. Francis Murphy will lead a regional effort to stem a growing shortfall in school administrators. Murphy will play a pivotal role in closing the gap between a dwindling pool of qualified leaders and an expected 50 percent turnover in school administrators over the next five years.

Funding for the state-funded Regional Leadership Academy comes from a two-year Goals 2000 grant for $224,300. Lead agency for the grant is Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES. Other grant participants are Monroe #1 BOCES, Genesee Valley BOCES, Wayne Finger Lakes BOCES and the Rochester City School District. An Executive Committee, which will oversee Academy activities, consists of the grant participants plus representatives from SUNY Brockport, SUNY Oswego, the University of Rochester. St. John Fisher College, the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) and the School Administrators Association of New York State (SAANYS).
Murphy has been Superintendent of the Rome City School District since 1998. He also held superintendencies in Scarsdale, Williamsville and Oswego, New York, and North Conway, New Hampshire. He has taught educational administration in the SUNY system at Buffalo, Cortland, and Oswego and at the University of New Hampshire and Syracuse University. He is currently on the teaching staff at St. John Fisher College. He was selected as New York State Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators in 1989 and was named one of Executive Educator's 100 outstanding school executives in North America by Executive Educator Magazine in February 1986.

"We know educational leadership has an extraordinary effect on school performance. That's research based," said Murphy. "But we've ignored that side of the business. We need to be more systematic about that." That's what he expects the Leadership Academy to do.