Adams-Cheshire Hires Interim Superintendent
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Adams-Cheshire Regional School Committee has unanimously voted to hire Robert Putnam as its interim superintendent.
The committee held a short meeting Wednesday to vote on hiring the former Central Berkshire Regional administrator.
"I will reach out to Dr. Putnam tonight and wish him congratulations," Chairman Paul Butler said. "We have a new interim superintendent this coming year and I look forward to good things."
Putnam will replace Kristen Gordon, who agreed to leave at the end of the school year. She has been hired as principal of Conway Grammar School. The goal of the School Committee has been to put an interim leader in place until it could determine its next steps on a permanent replacement.
The school district had come up with three finalists: Putnam, former Taconic High School teacher Christine Canning and a third candidate who withdrew early Monday morning before the final round of interviews.
After a tense interview Monday night that turned hostile between Canning and the School Committee, Canning withdrew her application and left the meeting.
School Committee member James Ryan asked if it would be beneficial to reopen the selection process so the committee had more than one candidate to pick from.
Chairman Paul Butler said it could do this but it would have to restart the whole process.
"It would start the process all over again and, unfortunately, we are running down into the time limit," Butler said. "We run the risk of losing the candidate we already have so there are some real risks if we decide to do that."
Committee members Darlene Rodowicz and Regina Hill said they both favored Putnam and would not want to reopen the search process.
"There were no other strong candidates that I would entertain considering, and I think Dr. Putnam is an excellent choice," Hill said. "He comes to the district with a proven record. He has formerly been an assistant superintendent and a superintendent so he knows the overall workings of the office. For an interim position I think he would do a great job."
Putnam has 14 years experience in administration; he left his post at Central Berkshire Regional School District for personal reasons and has for the past year been a music teacher at Monument Mountain Middle School in Great Barrington.
After dropping out of high school and earning his General Equivalency Diploma (GED), Putnam earned an associate degree in liberal arts at Berkshire Community. He completed post-graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, earning a bachelor's degree in history, a master's in education and doctorate in curriculum study.
On Monday, he said he enjoyed being a teacher again but wished to return to an administrative role.
Committee member Stephan Vigna said because Putnam's contract will be for the interim, he would like the committee to come together and create specific duties and goals he should have for the year.
Putnam will start July 1 pending a successful contract negotiation.
Butler also responded to a comment Canning left on Monday night's iBerkshires story in which Canning stated that the School Committee is under investigation by the attorney general's office.
He said he and district counsel are unaware of any pending investigations.
"The comment was put out there simply as rumor with no basis in fact to what ends I can only speculate," Butler said. "This type of commentary, although perfectly legal, insults the integrity of this board and denigrates the hard work of our administrators and teachers and all employees of the district."
Butler said everyone should be focused on moving the district forward.
"We should be focused on moving ahead and improving the education of all of our students. Once again, this type of negativity moves us backwards instead of forward," he said. "I choose to move forward and I hope the majority of us wish to move forward as well."
Tags: ACRSD, interim appointment, superintendent,
