Adams-Cheshire To Hire Interim Superintendent
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The School Committee approved Tuesday doing a full external search and appointing a temporary replacement for Alfred Skrocki when he retires at the end of October.
The committee has already performed an internal search for candidates but only two people responded, one from outside the district. While those candidates were qualified, committee members felt the position was so important that they should look outside before making a final decision.
"We really want to make sure we've done our homework," Chairman Paul Butler said.
The committee is eyeing one of the two who already applied as a candidate for the interim post. If she does not want the job, they will then seek an interim from outside. If she accepts the position, they are planning to start the job in July to allow her to learn from Skrocki's 14 years of experience. An outside interim would come from a list of retired superintendents from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees and start in November.
The candidate and the board will have to work out a contract and set a transition plan if the candidate is interested.
As for the full search, the committee is starting immediately by organizing focus groups with students, teachers, administrators, community members and town officials to help develop the job descriptions and a brochure of information. In August, they will advertise "globally" for the job to start next January or July. A search committee will be appointed in September. Doing it this way will ensure that school will have the most options, the committee said.
According to Pat Correira, a field director with MASC hired to consult with the search, rushing to fill the position in time for Skrocki's retirement will not bring in the best candidates. The school will not have developed the best pitch to lure candidates away from their schools and the job pool right now is small. However, after the summer break, more superintendents will be in the market.
"We can do it by the end of the school year but it's going to be really crunch time," Correira said. "Searches just don't happen. It takes forever."
Squeezing in a full search now would require bypassing or rearranging the timeline — particularly with community focus groups, which school officials did not want.
"We represent the community so we need to have a pulse of what they want," committee member Edmund St. John IV said. "And they would love it if we asked them."
On the other hand, since the committee has already performed an internal search, some members voiced concern that doing a full search now would send the "wrong" message to the candidates who already applied. Committee members stressed that it was not that the candidates were not qualified but that they prefer to have as much of a choice as possible.
