Paradise Valley picks Las Vegas educator as schools superintendent
Feb 22, 2019, 4:25 AM
(Twitter Photo/@DrJesseWelsh)
PHOENIX – An administrator for one of the nation’s largest school districts was selected as the next superintendent for the Paradise Valley Unified School District.
The PV district’s governing board announced Tuesday that Jesse Welsh would succeed James P. Lee, who is retiring June 30.
The board will vote on Welsh’s contract at its March 7 meeting, and he will start his new position July 1, the district said in a press release.
“I look forward to visiting schools to connect with our administrators, teachers, staff, and students and meeting with our parents and community groups,” Welsh said in the release.
Lee’s 10-year tenure is the longest the district’s 106-year history, the release said.
Welsh has been the assistant superintendent for the Clark County School District in Nevada since 2017.
Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, is the country’s fourth-largest district (excluding Puerto Rico), according to Niche.
With around 31,000 students at 45 schools, the Paradise Valley district is about one-tenth the size of Clark County.
Welsh has worked in a variety of roles, both as a teacher and an administrator, during his 23-year career in K-12 education.
“Dr. Welsh has a proven ability to work with diverse populations and developed programming that attracted thousands of students back to district schools from charter schools within Clark County,” Julie Bacon, board president, said in the release.