New Superintendent – Ideal Candidate Should Possess Experience Building Schools

With the search committee for a new Superintendent of Schools having narrowed its list of candidates to a final four, we have no doubt that the School Committee will  have before it a highly qualified person from which to choose to fill this important position.

The selection of a superintendent by a school committee is the biggest single decision that a school committee can make. That has been especially true since the inception of the school reform laws in the mid-1990s that took so much power from school committees and vested it in the superintendents.

Although we find that there typically is little differentiation among superintendent candidates at the finalist stage of the selection process (they all sound alike and say the same things), one deciding factor for our School Committee may be which of the candidates, if any, has had experience in the school building and renovation process. It seems inevitable that within the next two years or so, Winthrop High School either will be replaced or undergo a major renovation. Although a School Building Committee no doubt will be directing the building/renovation process, a school superintendent invariably will be deeply involved on a day to day basis with the project. Obviously, some experience in this realm would be extremely desirable.

Interviews for the four finalists are this week. We urge as many residents as possible to listen to what the candidates have to say and then call your School Committee members to let them know your opinions.