Worcester Superintendent Search: 4 Finalists Revealed

WORCESTER, MA — After seven months of work, the local committee in charge of finding a replacement for outgoing Worcester Superintendent Maureen Binienda on Tuesday revealed the four finalists for the job.

The search for Binienda's replacement began in October, when the school committee hired Greenwood/Asher & Associates to do a nationwide search for candidates.

By March 21, the firm sent a special ad hoc committee comprised of school committee members and residents a list of 30 possible candidates. That committee pared down the group to six by the end of March and finally four.

Here are the candidates revealed at a school committee meeting on Tuesday:

• Charles Grandson, the chief equity officer in the Boston Public Schools. He previously served as an interim superintendent in Malden, and in leadership roles in Springfield Public Schools and in Poughkeepsie, NY.
• Sonya Harrison, an assistant superintendent in the School District of Philadelphia. Harrison previously worked as a principal and teacher.
• Rachel Monárrez, a deputy superintendent in the San Bernardino City Unified School District in California. She was previously a teacher in the Pomona Unified School District
• Malika Savoy-Brooks, the chief academic supports officer in the School District of Philadelphia. She was also recently a finalist to become superintendent of the Decatur Public Schools system in Illinois.

Members of the school committee and school district will begin traveling to the home districts of each candidate this week to do research. The candidates will be in Worcester next week for a final round of interviews, and meetings with the public and school leaders. The Worcester School Committee could make a final pick by April 28.

Binienda's contract ends in June, and the new superintendent would begin in the job by July 1.