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Date: 4/4/2023
WARREN — At the School Committee meeting on March 20, the new Quaboag Regional Middle High School principal was announced, as well as the new Quaboag Regional School District Technology Director.
New middle/high school principal
Casey Handfield was selected among three finalists for principal.
He has taught as an adjunct professor at Assumption College and Nichols College, was assistant principal at Wachusett Regional High School, and most recently served as both principal at Auburn High School and then the district’s superintendent.
Interim Superintendent Maureen Binienda said the search turned out to be very extensive, and was a multi-interview process by an 11 person committee composed of teachers, staff, the union and representation from other areas in the school. The position was listed on the SchoolSpring website and advertised internally. After the committee narrowed the candidates down to five, which, Binienda said, “is a lot of options, especially during this time,” further discussion resulted in a reduction to three candidates.
The three final candidates met with the superintendent for a final interview. Binienda said that some of the clinching factors in this decision had to do with both Handfield having a lot of experience with high schools, and his background in finance was a prominent, as “there are a lot of problems with rural education and financial support,” Binienda said.
According to Binienda, Handfield had worked with the district as a financial consultant during the summer of 2023, as the school committee had hired a company to assist with financial planning, and Handfield was one of the two consultants hired for the job. Binienda said the fact that he is already familiar with the district’s budget is a big benefit to the school.
Binienda said that there are a number of qualities that the committee was looking for in an ideal candidate. Non-negotiable requirements were a state certification as a school administrator, a master’s degree, and extensive experience with high school.
“Fairly extensive experience in middle and high school, must have been in administration preferably as a principal or vice principal, experience working with students including special education, understand scheduling, have college and career knowledge, have an understanding of the Chapter 74 program — our early childhood program — be able to achieve successful parent guardian engagement, and be involved with and understand the community,” Binienda said, of just some of the other qualifications the committee was looking at. Binienda said that, “luckily, we have a very collaborative committee,” which served to aid the search process.
Binienda said, “Middle and high school principal is one of the most challenging jobs available, because you’re really in charge of a lot of staff and students all day.” She added that also very important was a grasp on the “social-emotional learning strategies that are needed for the effects of covid on students, as well as being able to determine what special development needs to be able to be provided for our staff.”
Hanfield officially assumes his role on July 1. Binienda said there are some other moving parts happening around the time of his entry into the district, with herself leaving as interim superintendent on June 30, and current principal of QRMHS Steve Duff transitioning into the superintendent’s position.
New technology director
Another hire of note in the district is Conor LaHiff, chosen as the Technology Director for the district. A separate but overlapping committee was dedicated to this search, Binienda said.
Binienda said the committee was “looking for somebody that knows the back part and front part of technology – the front part being that they know how to train staff, and how to work with teachers and students, but also for the back part, they know how the servers work, and knows how to get help for any tech problems.”
LaHiff was unanimously selected by everyone on the committee, Binienda said. LaHiff has a lengthy history of working with technology in education, most recently having been the Network and Desktop Manager at Whittier Regional Vocational and Technical High School in Haverhill.