WILTON — While the school district searches for a new superintendent, officials are relying on a retiree with years of experience to see them through the next year.

Last week, the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School Board hired Donald LaPlante as interim superintendent to lead the district through June 30, 2013. The need arose after former Superintendent Trevor Ebel resigned in April in response to a probe into financial misconduct involving the district's credit cards.

Since his resignation, Wilton-Lyndeborough High School Principal Brian Bagley has been serving as acting superintendent, balancing both his roles while a consultant for the New Hampshire School Boards Association searched for a long-term interim superintendent. A search for a permanent superintendent is expected to begin in the fall.

LaPlante has more than three decades of experience in school administration and served the White Mountain Regional School District for 24 years.

“I started as an assistant principal at the high school and worked my way up through the ranks,” said LaPlante, who started working in Wilton on Monday.

After leaving White Mountain, LaPlante, who lives in Enfield with his wife, spent five years as superintendent of the Hartford School District in Vermont, and three years as the superintendent of School Union No. 6 in Maine.

For the last year, LaPlante has been experimenting with retirement.

“I spent a year in the woods, chopping wood and taking a deep breath,” he said.

But when the Wilton-Lyndeborough job came available, he decided to jump back in.

“They've had some difficulty here and they need somebody who can work on community building and team building. That's something I've done a lot of,” he said. “I really felt like I had something to offer.”

LaPlante said he doesn't see himself as a “place holder” and expects to be working closely with the administrators, teachers, staff and school board to make decisions to carry the district into the future.

nfoster@newstote.com