Bolgen Vargas is superintendent finalist in Manchester, N.H.

Former Rochester City School District Superintendent Bolgen Vargas is a finalist for the superintendency in the Manchester, New Hampshire School District.

That district confirmed a report Tuesday from the New Hampshire Union Leader naming Vargas as one of two finalists.

Vargas was superintendent in Rochester from July 2012 until December 2015, the culmination of a career spent in Rochester-area schools. He served on the Rochester school board from 1996 to 2003, including a stint as president, and was a counselor in the Greece Central School District for 20 years.

► Rochester schools chief Bolgen Vargas to resign (October 2015)

► Vargas leaves mark on several areas (October 2015)

His departure as Rochester's schools leader was anything but ceremonious. He threatened to sue the school board in March 2015 when the board wrested some hiring autonomy away from him; each accused the other of overreach.

► Bolgen Vargas accuses school board of retaliation

The lawsuit never developed, but the possibility lingered through the rest of the year and highlighted a relationship gone sour between Vargas and his elected bosses. In October, Vargas and School Board President Van White announced Vargas would step down at the end of the year, six months before his four-year contract was to expire.

"When there's no certainty about my future, it's not easy to lead," Vargas said at the time. "This is in the best interest of the district."

He collected the remaining $97,500 of his salary in six months as an informal advisor this year, but practically speaking was idle. Interim Superintendent Linda Cimusz said she never spoke with him.

► Bolgen Vargas, still on RCSD payroll, has been idle (June 2016)

When asked about his future plans last October, Vargas would say only that he was considering several options. In his Manchester application, he presented himself as a self-employed educational consultant, according to the Union Leader.

Vargas was credited with restoring focus to basics like attendance and early literacy and with establishing some stability in the budget process. He had a rocky relationship with the administrators union, however, not to mention his behind-the-scene struggles with the school board.

Neither Vargas nor Manchester school board member Debra Langton, who heads that district's search committee, could be reached for comment. The other Manchester finalist is Vincent Cotter, former superintendent of schools in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.

Manchester is less than half the size of the Rochester City School District, with about 14,000 students. Its graduation rate in 2015 was 76 percent. About a quarter of children live beneath the poverty line there, compared with more than 50 percent in Rochester.

JMURPHY7@Gannett.com