Ledyard — In his time at East Catholic High School in Manchester, Ledyard's new superintendent Jay Hartling said one of his favorite moments was helping a shy student start a varsity field hockey team at the school. 

"It goes through the model of coaching people," Hartling said. "Helping them develop to be their very best ... (and) helping them fit into the bigger picture."

Hartling follows an administrator with 28 years of experience in the town's schools, Cathy Patterson, who retired in June but has stayed on as an interim superintendent during the search process.

As the new person in town, Hartling said he has a lot of families to meet and relationships to build, but aims to be present and accessible so people "feel comfortable picking up the phone and calling."

A native of Holyoke, Mass., Hartling was the first in his family to graduate from college — one of the reasons he became dedicated to education, he said.

After attending Norwich University in Vermont, and serving as a part-time enlisted military police officer for eight years as well as in the private sector, he obtained a master's degree in teaching at Johns Hopkins University, where he conducted research on student motivation.

Remaining in Baltimore, Hartling served as the principal of Northwestern High School in Baltimore, which he called a "dramatically under-served" school and where he said he reduced staff turnover.

In 2011, Hartling took over as principal and administrator of East Catholic, where he oversaw a $6 million capital campaign and building project to construct a 14,000-square-foot math and technology wing in 2014 — experience that chairwoman of the Board of Education Mimi Peck-Llewellyn said will guide him in overseeing the town's $65 million project renovating Gallup Hill and Ledyard Middle schools.

"With a school that may have floundered, East Catholic, he not only was able to fundraise to keep it open and thrive but also able to start construction on a multimillion-dollar addition," she said. "And it's important to us with our projects to have someone that is familiar with building projects and complete the work that started when Mike Graner was superintendent."

The Board of Education, appointed as the search committee in June, hired a search consultant from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, Mary Broderick. Broderick and Board of Education member Stephanie Calhoun held several community forums to provide input into the superintendent selection process.

Twelve candidates applied for the position and six were chosen for interviews. In the final interview between Hartling and another finalist, 20 community members were invited to attend and submit questions to the applicants.

Calhoun, who also took over as the new president of the Ledyard Educational Advancement Foundation in July, said she believed Hartling's experience working at East Catholic could help outreach with parents and alumni and strengthen ties between LEAF and the school district.

Patterson will deliver a convocation on Aug. 29 and introduce Hartling to the faculty and staff at Ledyard High School. In the past two weeks, she's been in correspondance with Hartling about the transition process, and said he is a "good problem solver" and has become a "quick colleague and friend."

"I'm happy that they hired a person I can endorse," she said. "That tops off my career."

Peck-Llewellyn said she anticipated that Hartling would start work Sept. 12, adding that school officials were currently in the process of negotiating his contract.

n.lynch@theday.com