Brian Swatland has been named superintendent at Dunkirk City Schools.

Brian Swatland will be the Dunkirk City School District’s next superintendent.

The Dunkirk Board of Education approved a three-year contract for Swatland on Tuesday. His salary was not disclosed.

The board chose to hire a replacement for Michael Mansfield, who is taking a new position with the district in July, from within the Dunkirk school system. Swatland joined the Dunkirk school district in August as director of secondary education. Prior to that, he was principal of the Williamsville East high school.

There was no public discussion on Swatland’s hiring. The Board of Education used a loophole in New York state’s Open Meetings Law to talk about the hire in private, executive sessions. The law allows the potential hiring of personnel to get discussed in executive session.

“The board worked hard and we picked a new superintendent… to fill some big shoes (to be) left by Mr. Mansfield in July,” said Board of Education head Kenneth Kozlowski. “We had a good problem, we had four good candidates.”