Mark MacLean, Superintendent of Merrimack Valley and Andover school districts, will be leaving his position at the end of the school year and moving to a new role as the executive director of the New Hampshire School Administrators Association.

MacLean, who has been the Superintendent in SAU46 for the past nine years, will assume his new role July 1, NHSAA President Russell Holden announced this month. MacLean will be replacing the NHSAA’s current executive director Carl Ladd, who plans to retire in June.

“It is humbling to be selected to lead NHSAA. I thank the NHSAA and the Executive Board for their vote and their confidence in me,” MacLean said. “I promise to thoughtfully and diligently represent the association, systems leaders across the state, and the 167,000 students on whose behalf we work.”

In Merrimack Valley and Andover school districts, Randy Wormald, who is currently the Assistant Superintendent, will become the Superintendent on July 1. Catherine Masterson, who is currently the principal at Loudon Elementary School, will take Wormald’s place as Assistant Superintendent.

The New Hampshire School Administrators Association opened a nationwide search for a new executive director last fall, and the search committee solicited feedback from educators across the state about the qualities and vision they would like to see in the next executive director. MacLean was selected from a pool of three finalists, all New Hampshire superintendents. 

“Dr. MacLean’s thoughtfulness, solutions-based approach, and positive outlook make him the right person to lead our organization into the future,” Holden said. “Screening committee members placed great value in a strong track record of innovation and a passionate advocacy for students and their families, and someone who has been active in educational issues on the local, state and national levels.”

NHSAA serves public school leaders in roughly 288 public school districts throughout New Hampshire. The organization’s executive director reports directly to the president, and is responsible for professional leadership and day-to-day management of the association. The director is charged with the further development of the organization and will provide leadership for strategy, development, implementation, financial oversight and revenue generation.

MacLean has served as superintendent of SAU 46, serving the towns of Andover, Boscawen, Loudon, Penacook, Salisbury, and Webster, since 2014, and he taught in the district from 1996 to 2007. He was NHSAA’s New Hampshire Superintendent of the Year in 2020.

He also served on the governing board of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) from 2016 to 2022, and chaired the NHSAA's Executive Board Legislative Committee since 2018.

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