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School's superintendent search finishes gathering input

Date: 1/25/2010

Jan. 25, 2010



By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW -- The School Committee is following an aggressive timeline for the process of finding a replacement for the current co-interim superintendents. At their meeting last Tuesday evening, the committee finalized the advertisement that will be placed in Education Week Magazine and appointed more members to the superintendent search committee.

Pat Correira, field director, Training and Development for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC), is serving as the search consultant for East Longmeadow and met with the School Committee during their Jan. 19 meeting. She went over the findings of the forums that recently took place to gather input on what school staff and residents want to see in their new superintendent.

"Everybody is very interested in the search," Correira said. "Everybody wanted to participate."

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) lists five categories in which a candidate should excel: leadership, administration, equity, community relationships and professional responsibilities. The nearly 400 individuals who participated in the feedback process, either by attending forums or filling out an online survey, said the features they wanted most in a new superintendent were stability (especially in financial management) and continuing support for school faculty.

"I know I'm looking for someone who is more communicative, who is education driven, who is budget conscious," School Committee Chair Bill Fonseca told Reminder Publications.

The report put together by Correira and the MASC states, "East Longmeadow stakeholders were extraordinarily perceptive in identifying their critical needs and articulate in explaining what would comprise their vision for the district."

In addition, residents are looking for a candidate with collective bargaining experience, someone who will maintain high standards for all children and will balance the needs of all students in an economic crisis, someone who has experience in a school district like East Longmeadow and someone who is an accessible leader.

"I'm confident our district will speak for itself," Fonseca said of attracting worthy candidates for the position.

He added that the search committee and the School Committee are on schedule to wrap up the search process by the Annual Town Meeting. The new superintendent would not start until the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

The advertisement for the position will be in the Feb. 3 edition of Education Week Magazine.