Williamstown-Lanesborough Superintendent Search Progressing
 The superintendency committee for Williamstown and Lanesborough elementary schools heard an update on the superintendent search committee and elected Valerie Hall, left, as its chairman. |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The search committee for the next superintendent of Williamstown's and Lanesborough's schools is staying on track with its timetable to replace the retiring Rose Ellis.
The chairman of the Lanesborough School Committee on Tuesday reported to her colleagues at a meeting of Superintendency Union 71 that the search committee is scheduled to meet on Oct. 15 to review applications for the post.
SU-71, a union of Williamstown Elementary and Lanesborough Elementary schools, shares central administration staff, including the superintendent, with Mount Greylock Regional School in an arrangement referred to as the Tri-District.
The SU-71 Committee, a joint committee of the two elementary school districts, met on Tuesday for its annual reorganization.
Lanesborough's Regina DiLego used the meeting as an opportunity to provide an update on the progress to replace the current Tri-District superintendent, who in September notified the three districts she would be retiring effective Dec. 31 and not filling out the remainder of her current contract, which would have expired on June 30.
"I think it's amazing we're still meeting these deadlines," Williamstown School Committee Chairwoman Valerie Hall said.
Hall and the two Williamstown representatives to the SU-71 committee, Dan Caplinger and John Skavlem, attended Tuesday's meeting. The two other members of the Lanesborough's committee were not able to join DiLego for the meeting at Williamstown Elementary School.
DiLego said the deadline for applications is Friday, Oct. 10. She has not heard how many applications have been submitted, but a representative of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees — which is advising the Tri-District — said that as of Sept. 29, a few applications already were in.
The Sept. 29 training session for the full search committee went well, DiLego reported.
"All the members of the committee had to craft a question [for applicants], which they returned to me," she said.
Once the search committee reviews the applications next week in executive session, it will decide who it wishes to bring in for the first round of interviews, which likely also will be in executive session.
To protect the identities of applicants currently employed by other districts, any applicant can request that the initial interview be held behind closed doors. Once one applicant makes such a request, all of the interviews in that round would be treated the same — i.e., as executive session meetings.
The search committee will pick an undetermined number of finalists after the initial interviews, and those finalists would be interviewed in public sessions.
"Only the names we advance become public," DiLego said. "And before we advance them, we have to ask [the candidate if he or she is] willing to have your name be public even though there's a chance you won't be hired."
DiLego said she did not know whether any of the candidates who already submitted their applications would be available to start on Jan. 1. If the successful candidate cannot start until July 1 (if, for example, he or she is under contract with another district), the Tri-District would be able to hire an interim superintendent in a more streamlined process, DiLego said.
The Administrative Review Subcommittee — a threefour-person body with representation from each school district — has the authority to hire an interim superintendent on its own, DiLego said.
The SU-71 Committee on Tuesday elected Hall as its chairman, DiLego as its vice chairman and Caplinger as its secretary.
Tags: search committee, SU 71, superintendent,
