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ELKINS -- The Upshur County Board of Education approved the hiring of Russ Collett as the new superintendent of county schools this week.
Collett, who is currently employed as Transportation, Maintenance, and Safe Schools coordinator for Barbour County Schools, told the Inter-Mountain on Thursday that he is both thankful and excited that he was selected for the position.
"It's just a great opportunity and having grown up in Randolph County and graduating from Elkins, you get to know a lot of people in Upshur County," Collett said. "They have a whole lot of pride and I think it was a great opportunity for me to move forward.
"I think I can move in there and help them, and at the same time just add on to what that community already expects. I'm looking forward to it."
The Upshur County BOE held a public forum last week for the final three job candidates. The board voted unanimously to hire Collett, who will have a two-year contract with an annual salary of $107,500.
"The whole process was great. They had students involved with the public forum, which I thought was wonderful," Collett said. "The community just wants to improve and stay at a very high standard.
"I know the current administration has a lot of things going on and Dr. (Debra ) Harrison has been wonderful to me and we are just trying to get started."
Collett has served in his current position for the past two years. In all, he has spent the last six years in Barbour County, serving as assistant principal at both of the county's middle schools, along with being assistant principal and head football coach at Philip Barbour High School.
Before that, Collett was principal at Elkins High School for three years. He spent a total of 15 years in the Randolph County Schools system, which included a five-year stint as head football coach at Tygarts Valley High School. During that time he also served as assistant principal at Elkins Middle School.
"We had a lot of success while I was at Elkins High School, we improved our academics and improved our attendance," Collett said. "We had such a great staff there and I hated to leave them but I wanted to coach again."
Collett said he never had any aspirations of becoming a school superintendent until current Barbour County Superintendent Jeff Woofter began urging him to do so.
"I wasn't thinking about it until I met Jeff Woofter," he said. "Through many conversations and a lot of encouragement from him, I decided to pursue it. He thought I was ready to do it and he felt that I could help a lot of people. So he's the main reason I started to apply."
Collett said the had applied for other superintendent jobs before landing the Upshur County position.
"I went through a couple interviews and I didn't feel like they fit and I wasn't chosen," said Collett. "But I didn't get down about it, and Upshur County came along and it just seemed to fit.
"They are looking for some things and are very open to the things I have to offer. They have been absolutely wonderful to me and my family and I can't wait to get over there and get going."
Collett's wife, Dr. Sherri Collett, owns Collett Family Chiropractic in Elkins. Collett will begin his new job on July 1.