CAMDEN — The new Five Town Community School District and School Administrative District 28 superintendent is a familiar face in the community, partly because for the past two years she has been the assistant to the current superintendent, and for six years before that was principal at Camden-Rockport Middle School.

The Five Town CSD and SAD 28 school board voted March 10 to hire Assistant Superintendent Maria Libby as it next superintendent.

Libby will succeed Elaine Nutter, who was hired as superintendent in July 2013 and announced her resignation Dec. 3, 2014. Nutter will remain on the job until June 30, when Libby will officially begin her duties.

Libby attended school in Camden, and was a Camden-Rockport High School valedictorian of the Class of 1982. She studied economics at Bowdoin College and graduated in 1986. After college, she taught math and science at private schools in Colorado and New Hampshire, and then worked in the environmental field before returning to education.

Libby spent 15 years at C-RMS, teaching math for six years before being hired as assistant principal. She filled that post for two and then was hired as principal, where she remained for the next seven years.

In July 2013, Libby was named assistant superintendent for the district.

"We were looking for stability in a new superintendent," said Tori Manzi, Five Town CSD board member and chair of the superintendent search team. "There is no guarantee, but where she is a very committed member of the community, she was a very attractive candidate."

Manzi said that the search team received approximately 15-18 applications, a number that includes a few incomplete submissions. The team was made up of students, staff, parents, administrators and board members.

She also said the field for school superintendents in Maine currently is a competitive one, compared to when they hired former superintendent William Shuttleworth in in 2012.

"The average life span of a superintendent is 1.8 years, because it's such a hard job. If they are good, they get moved to other places, or they leave the area totally," said Manzi.

And while the search team felt that Libby's ties to the community were deep and lasting, they also believed that Libby brings experience and solid skills to the job.

"She will also be able to transition in quickly. If someone from the outside were to have been selected, they would have to take time for their other job to get up to speed. For Maria, she knows the schools, the system and the community very well."

Related stories:

• Camden Hills school Superintendent Elaine Nutter resigns

• Camden-Rockport, Five Town CSD appoint new assistant superintendent

Contact Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com