Watertown's Assistant Superintendent Candidate will be Recommended by the Superintendent

The School Committee will fill the open assistant superintendent by using a candidate recommended by Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald, rather than using a search committee.

Under the district’s policy, a search committee made up of staff and parents is used to fill an opening for the second-in-command position, but they have the option if there is an interim person in the spot, said Ray Shurtleff, the interim human resources director.

The state statute allows for the superintendent to recommend a candidate to the School Committee, which would then vote to approve or disapprove the candidate, Shurtleff said.

“My feeling is statute trumps policy,” Shurtleff told the School Committee Monday night. 

Lowell School Principal Darilyn Donovan has served as interim assistant superintendent since Assistant Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald was appointed interim superintendent. In March, Fitzgerald was selected as the new superintendent, and Monday night the School Committee approved a contract under which Fitzgerald will be paid $156,000 a year.

Shurtleff said one reason to go with a recommendation from the superintendent is to speed up the process. The assistant superintendent position has to be posted on the Watertown Public School’s website for 10 days and then Fitzgerald can make a recommendation. That would allow the School Committee to vote on the candidate at its next meeting on June 4.

Shurtleff said the appointment of the next assistant superintendent may create other openings the Watertown schools.

Donavan said she expects to put her name into the running for assistant superintendent, but she has also considered going back to being a principal, and accepted a principal job in Newton before deciding not to take the position. She could also go back to being Lowell’s principal.

“I am assuming I will,” Donovan said. “But principalships still interest me. It will have to be weighed against many other factors.”

The last time the assistant superintendent job was open, a search committee was used, noted School Committee Vice Chairman John Portz. There is precedent for letting the superintendent recommend an appointment, Shurtleff said. In 2003 an assistant superintendent was appointed without using a search committee.

The School Committee voted 7-0 to move ahead without using a search committee.