My Goal in Blogging

I started this blog in May of 2008, shortly after my election to the School Committee, because I believed it was very important to both provide the community with an opportunity to share their thoughts with me about our schools and to provide me with an opportunity for me to ask questions and share my thoughts and reasoning. I have found the conversation generated on my blog to be extremely helpful to me in learning community views on many issues. I appreciate the many people who have taken the time to share their views. I believe it is critical to the quality of our public schools to have a public discussion of our community priorities, concerns and aspirations.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Superintendent Search Committee

So, the search committee for the superintendent is set -- and you can read about the members (and time line) on line at: http://www.gazettenet.com/2010/12/22/amherst-regional-school-committee-names-members-superintendent-s.

Let me just add a few points here.

First, we had a number of people apply to participate, and I was really sorry we were limited to so few spots (the search firm recommended a group of 7 or 8 and we went with 10). I am really thankful to all of those who submitted their names and were willing to spend 2 days helping with this very important task.

Second, we were very limited in terms of who could be selected -- we only had 4 spots available (since 3 were taken by SC members, 2 by teachers, 1 by an administrator), and of those 4 spots, we needed to have one spot for a Shutesbury resident and one spot for a Leverett resident. We also needed to make sure that these 4 spots included a town official, an elementary parent, and a regional parent.

Third, this search committee has an important job, which is to narrow the list of 5 candidates selected by the search firm to 3 finalists. However, ultimately the 10 members of the SC will choose from these 3. The superintendent choice must be agreed to by both the regional SC (5 members from Amherst, 2 from Pelham, 1 from Leverett, 1 from Shutesbury) and Union 26 (all 3 members from Pelham and 3 members from Amherst - me, Irv, Steve). The plan is to make this selection at a meeting on Thursday, January 20th at 8:30 pm.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on a job well done. Cheers to you, Rick & Nora!

Anonymous said...

I agree. This seems like a very balanced committee with some very capable folks on board.

Abbie said...

A fine line-up of folks. Good luck and hope all goes well.

Anonymous said...

Could this committee escape the inevitable second-guessing, the personal innuendo, the sore losing from those who disagree, the attacks on its integrity in the Bulletin?

Anonymous said...

I think it's called democracy where people are allowed to state their views -- and to disagree. And they do disagree.

What would you have instead? Have you ever lived anyplace where everyone agreed?

Anonymous said...

Have I ever lived anywhere where so many people disagreed? where so many people consider themselves the smartest person in town?

There are actually places where people delegate authority in what we call elections? where people accept that they've lost an argument and move on?

Catherine A. Sanderson said...

Thanks (Anonymous 5:52, Anonymous 8:32, Abbie) for the kind words. I agree that this is a great group.

Anonymous 10:35 - my hope is that this committee will in fact escape this tpe of critique, in part because the work of this committee will occur behind closed doors. I very much hope that this committee will produce three extremely qualifed superintendent finalists, who will be greeted warmly by the community.

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:58: yes I have, three other communities. Anyone else ever lived in a place where people disagreed?