Superintendent Search Will Soon Be Underway

Board of Education members set the wheels in motion for the hiring of an interim superintendent of schools and for a search committee to find the successor for departing schools' chief Dr. Colleen Palmer at its Monday night meeting.

The board also voted to give its chairman, Darrell Trump, the authority to negotiate a contract for an interim assistant superintendent on its behalf.

Palmer accepted the Weston superintendent of schools job and Assistant Supt. Richard Canfield will lead the public schools in Sandwich, Mass.

The only issue that sparked discussion was George King's motion to approve a search committee consisting of all nine board of education members with Trump as chairman and Mark Hughes as secretary.

"I thought we were going to add a member at large from the town," said Donna Lane, a board member, adding a member of the Town Council or Board of Finance as some examples.

"I think it will be more beneficial to bring these people in and out when necessary," Hughes said. "It's the board's responsibility. It's just been Board of Education members in the past."

"With all due respect to my colleague that's categorically not true," Board of Education member Thomas Taylor disagreed.

Taylor said parents, teachers and administrators were represented on past search committees and, as a procedural matter, added that titles such as chairman and secretary could not be transferred from the school board to the search committee, whose members would have to vote for its officers.

Masuk Principal John Battista, who attended Monday's meeting, said he and representatives of different bargaining units sat in on interviews with candidates during the process when Alan Beitman was hired as superintendent a few years ago.

Trump asked Palmer for her opinion on whether or not the Board of Education should include members at large on the search committee.

"It's up to the board," she said. "I think an inclusive process along the way allows for more input ... It's the Board of Education's choice. I don't think I'm the appropriate person to tell you how to find another superintendent."

"The last search was rushed through and kind of out of the norm," board member Dr. Alan Vaglivelo said. "But as Mr. Taylor said, there were other people when Alan Beitman was hired."

Trump said it was not the board's intention to exclude public input, adding it was only a question of whether or not to make them members of a search committee.

Kelly Plunkett, a board member, noted how the three search firms the board consulted with all emphasized community input to find what they want in a superintendent. "Everybody's a stakeholder," she said.

"There are no bigger stakeholders than the staff and the administrators," Taylor said, adding it is "imperative" that a member of the Monroe Education Association (the teachers' union), administration and the parents council be included on the search committee.

Though the search committee can make a recommendation on who to hire, Taylor said the Board of Education will still have the final say.

Taylor's amendment to add members from the MEA, administration and the parents council was approved by a vote of 7-1, with Hughes the sole dissenter.

The following motion to approve the formation of a search committee with all nine board members and the three members at large to be named later passed unanimously.