School board hires firm for superintendent search

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The Board of Education voted 4-1 to hire a consulting firm at its Oct. 12 meeting to aid the district in its search for a new superintendent.

After former Schools Superintendent David Weiss resigned last month to take a position with the International Baccalaureate organization, a multinational educational foundation that supplies advanced academic programs to schools around the world, the role of interim superintendent was assumed by Dr. Jennifer Gallagher, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, with the help of the Executive Director of Human Resources Dr. Michele Natali and Chief Operating Officer Michael DeVito.

The board hired the firm School Leadership LLC for $19,000 after a heated discussion with Trustee Dr. Dennis Ryan, who voted against the measure and said he was disappointed and called the expenditure excessive.

“I think the Board of Education is charged with three main tasks, one of which is to hire a superintendent, and I don’t think we need a search committee for $20,000 to do this,” he said.

School Board President Stewart Mininsky disagreed.

“The search firm provides services and functions that we’ve never thought of,” he said. “They have access to a pool of superintendents that we cannot reach. I don’t think it’s excessive. When I say I don’t think it’s much — what it would cost us in time, material and our own ads — I don’t think there’s much of a difference.”

Ryan also inquired about whether or not other bids were considered.

“I have a quote from another firm which was $500 different,” Mininsky said, adding that School Leadership was highly recommended.

“I see it as an abrogation of our responsibility as a school board,” Ryan said.

Trustees Maureen Vrona, Darlene Tangney and Perry Bodnar agreed with Mininsky.

“I don’t think that hiring a superintendent search firm is an abrogation of our duty to hire the superintendent,” Vrona said. “The board — make no mistake about it — will still hire the superintendent. Our goal here is to get as much community input as we can, and to get as many qualified candidates from which to choose. My belief is that a search firm is going to help us do that better than we could do it on our own.”

Tangney said it was “in our best interest as a school district” to use the search firm, noting that it would allow trustees to hire the “best superintendent we could find.”

Bodnar echoed that sentiment, and added that a superintendent should match both the needs of the community and the expectations of the school board.

“I believe that’s the most important part — that we give every constituent group an opportunity to speak up,” he said.