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Date: 8/16/2022
NORTHAMPTON – During their Aug. 11 meeting, the Northampton School Committee decided to table their vote about their permanent superintendent search decision until a future November meeting.
The decision comes after a lengthy discussion in which the committee determined that more information is needed to decide whether they want to hire a firm to assist in a permanent superintendent search process or extend the term of current interim Superintendent Jannell Pearson-Campbell.
The goal is for the School Committee to gather more information about the search firms they are eyeing by October, with the hopes that an easier decision can be made once the November vote rolls around. The committee will also have the option of extending the interim term during the November meeting based on the progress Pearson-Campbell makes during her first few months as interim superintendent.
At-large member Aline LaBorwit-Davis, Ward 2 member Holly Ghazey, and Ward 6 member Margaret Miller were tasked with researching three national search firms under the Ad Hoc Superintendent Search Firm Committee with hopes of voting on a candidate by the end of the Aug. 11 meeting. The three firms are Omaha’s McPherson & Jacobson, Hazard Young Attea (HYA) and Iowa’s Ray and Associates.
According to Ghazey, the Search Firm Committee decided to eliminate Ray and Associates as a possible candidate due to organizational and timeliness issues.
Davis said that the subcommittee felt that HYA and McPherson & Jacobson were the best finalists because both carried similar positives. She also stated that all three firms confirmed that they could “price match,” which is a concept the committee hopes to uncover more information on in time for their October deadline.
According to Davis, the subcommittee also spoke with others who have used these firms to see what their experiences were like with them. Davis said these other districts spoke highly of the firms, but there was one question the Search Firm Committee could not find a concrete answer for.
“The one thing that we asked about that we didn’t get a good answer on consistently was about, ‘are they able to produce a competent and diverse pool of candidates,’” said Davis.
The School Committee is also exploring the possibility of utilizing the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) for the search. Ghazey said the conversations she had with Glen Koocher, the organization’s executive director, were “insightful.”
According to Ghazey, Koocher spoke highly of Pearson-Campbell during their conversation, calling her an “unflappable” superintendent.
“He said if [the School Committee] is interested in having minority candidates apply, this is a great time to give Dr. Pearson-Campbell an audition, and see what you like,” said Ghazey. “And then, in October and November, if things are going well, [the School Committee] might consider even extending the interim superintendent for another year or up to two years.”
Pearson-Campbell officially started as the interim superintendent of Northampton Public Schools on July 19 after Howard Eberwein III declined the committee’s initial offer to elect him as the interim. She began her journey in education 22 years ago and has worked as a classroom teacher, principal, and assistant director of education. She told the committee during her interview for the position that she has a technical background to move the district forward and stated that her skill set involves working with students on literacy and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Her current term is for up to one year, unless the committee decides to extend that timeline.
“When we did our interim search … one of the things many of us agreed on was that we saw in Dr. Pearson-Campbell were some real strengths that we were really excited about for the long-term role of superintendent,” said Ward 5 member Dina Levi. “I’ve been contemplating asking this body whether we want to think about pushing the timeline of it to be able to discuss with Dr. Pearson-Campbell what our goals for her for the interim and really be able to assess before we think about what a long-term search may look like.”
The School Committee is also deciding on a masking policy for the beginning of the school year during a special meeting on Aug. 18. Reminder Publishing will have more on that in the next edition.