Eric Ely

Eric D. Ely (pronounced ee-lee) has been superintendent of the Schenectady City School District in Schenectady, New York since January 3, 2006. Ely's previous career as an educator included being a middle school and high school teacher; coach; principal at three high schools; One Billings school trustee said "Ely was their most qualified candidate."
Education and early career
Ely graduated from Ohio State University and the University of Dayton. He was a teacher and coach at several Ohio schools.
Schenectady superintendent of schools
Ely made several changes to the district's administration during his first full year (2006-2007). That was also the year that the district landed on the State's "persistently dangerous schools" list, which Ely challenged. At the same time, the State reported that it had "rapidly improving student performance".
The district has won numerous competitive awards under Ely's leadership. It won a "Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative" grant in 2007 from the United States Department of Education. Schenectady was the only district in New York to win this award of money that year. with about $4 million in accumulated fund balance in 2007. The New York State Comptroller's office issued an opinion to Ely in April 2007 that their audit showed "significant revenue and expenditure projections in the tentative budget to be reasonable." In January 2006, Ely started his term as superintendent of the Schenectady schools at an annual salary of $142,000. Ely also testified before the New York State Assembly about school budget matters. Increased school budgets mean more teachers: by the start of the 2008-2009 school year, Ely was speaking to 120 new teachers for their orientation.
In January 2009, Eli, explained a case in which a male student impersonated a female friend to take a statewide exam. "We don't hire proctors or anything like that. We have our teachers do the proctoring. So the teachers know the kids. So it's actually pretty simple. The teacher was matching up names with faces and those kinds of things and they knew the kid. So they knew the kid whose name was on the paper and they knew that wasn't the kid who was sitting in the chair and all of a sudden they noticed this isn't exactly the girl"
In March 2009, Ely contracted with Schenectady mayor Brian Stratton to share fuel services with the city.
The Schenectady city schools had been plagued by a series of four teen suicides of girls from November 2008 through April 2009, which was attributed in part to bullying. Ely wrote in response to questions, "'We are always trying to find new ways and methods to address this growing problem among our young people. The community is also beginning to understand that these activities are embedded within the neighborhoods and even in the homes across our city and across the country.'" Ely met with a local representative of ACORN regarding "concerns about how the district was handling the recent rash of high school student suicides." Lakishia Martin of ACORN, who was denied a chance to run for the school board when a District Clerk refused to accept her petition minutes after the deadline, said "'We’re labeled as the troublemakers who always want to come here and talk to the superintendent.'" The budget with a 5.8% tax levy increase passed by 47 votes. A New York state trooper testified that Ely told Raucci in an e-mail that he was the suspect in an investigation. A confidential report commissioned by the school district "largely exonerated" Ely and the rest of the administration.

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