Assistant Superintendent Cuts Own Job from Norwood School Budget

NORWOOD, MA — The Norwood schools could be without an assistant superintendent after the man holding the position told the school committee to take it out of the budget.

The surprising move from Assistant Superintendent Alexander Wyeth came during a lengthy discussion on the proposed fiscal year 2018 budget during the Jan. 25 Norwood School Committee meeting.

“Put me on the list. I’ll start looking for another job. You tell that to your superintendent candidates,” Wyeth said.

“I don’t think we have to get this kind of attitude going at all. It’s a very difficult conversation, I don’t like what you just said, I don’t think it’s necessary,” Committee member Lisa Igoe responded.

The self-job cut came after committee member Patrick McDonough called on the committee to look into administrative cuts.

“That conversation needs to happen,” McDonough said, “For me, I’ve been looking at the administrative costs and it’s high and we need to look at this before we go to the classroom. “Why do we have two vice principals at the middle school?”

Superintendent James Hayden said two vice principals are needed to deal with discipline issues, warning that removing one could cause the school to fall back to a Level 3 or 4 school.

“They’re starting to make great results because of the structure. If you do two people they are just dealing with discipline and trying to survive one day to the next,” Hayden said. “You’ll end up back towards Level 3 and 4 and you’ll have sanctions from the Department of Education.”

Towards the end of the meeting, the board voted 3-2 to cut a vice principal position at the middle school and the assistant superintendent position. They also voted 3-2 to freeze salaries for administrative brokers. In both cases, committee member Myev Bodenhofer and Chairman James Gormley voted no.

“This is not a budget crisis, it’s a revenue crisis. The only remedy to change that and prevent pitting one group against the other is to change the revenue by an override and no one wants to talk about that,” Gormley said.

Budget discussions are expected to continue at their Feb. 8 meeting. The budget is scheduled to be presented to the finance committee on Feb. 9.

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