School Committee To Begin Search Process Again for New Superintendent
The School Committee has begun anew a process to hire a new Superintendent and the Committee hopes to interview finalist candidates in January and to hire the next leader of the School District by February or March. School Committee members tentatively agreed on a timeline for selecting a Screening Committee, advertising for the position and interviewing candidates at their regular meeting on Sep. 11. The School Committee is using a different approach this year in comparison to last year's search which ended without unanimous agreement on choosing a new Superintendent.
The failure to choose a new Superintendent last year led the School Committee to extend the contract for Interim Superintendent Tony Bent for another year and to begin another search effort this fall. This year's search will utilize some of the same information and processes which were used last year through their consulting organization New England School Development Council (NESDEC). However, the School Committee will not use the services of NESDEC this year and instead undertake the effort themselves based on their experience last year.
Beginning next month, the School Committee will organize the process by discussing make up of the Screening, developing ads and a brochure for distribution to several organizations and on the web and formalize the timeline for interviewing candidates and selection. The tentative schedule calls for the School Committee to appoint a Screening Committee by November and to set a deadline for applications. That deadline is expected to be sometime in November.
Following receipt of applications and resumés, the School District's Director of Human Resources and Superintendent Bent will review all applications and submit up to five finalists to the Screening Committee for interviewing. The Screening Committee will begin interviewing candidates sometime in early December and is expected to pick a couple finalists by the end of the year. The Screening Committee will submit their finalists to the School Committee in early to mid-January 2014 and the School Committee will conduct finalist interviews in January.
During late January and early February, the School Committee will complete their interviews, visit finalists' school districts and discuss a selection from the finalists. If all goes well, the School Committee is expected to make a final choice by late February or early March. Superintendent of Schools Tony Bent commented a couple weeks ago that it appears the pool of interim candidates is stronger than the pool of candidates for permanent positions.
