Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 9/3/2015
LONGMEADOW – The School Committee voted unanimously to hire Iowa-based superintendent search firm Ray and Associates during its Aug. 31 meeting.
The firm would aid in the search for a new superintendent for an estimated price of $25,900. Superintendent of Schools Marie Doyle announced her plans to retire following the 2015-2016 school year in June.
School Committee Vice Chair Michael Clark, who served as a member of a subcommittee that reviewed four responses to a request for proposals from search firms across the country, said the five-member search team of Ray and Associates scored the highest in its rating by the subcommittee and was estimated as the second least expensive.
Ultimately, the subcommittee recommended Ray and Associates to the School Committee, he noted.
The other search firms that submitted bids were Atlantic Research Partners, HYA Executive Search, and the New England School Development Council (NESDEC), he added.
“They provided us with outlines of what they can do for timelines, the scope of the work they were going to do, resumes for people that will potentially be conducting searches, and a list of references,” Clark said. “And through that information we conducted our technical evaluations.”
Question topics included strategy and plans, years of experience, staffing and capabilities, search timelines, materials and promotion as well as approaches to the community.
He noted that subcommittee ranked individual questions from the lowest score of one to the highest score – three. Ray and Associates received a cumulative ranking of 71, Atlantic was awarded 62 points, HYA gained 59 points, and NESDEC was given 57 points.
The prices for the other three firms were $30,450 for Atlantic, $31,500 for HYA, and NESDEC at $16,956, Clark said.
“A lot of the expenses are left up to us to say what we want – where we advertise for instance … We can decide how much we want the consultant here” he added.
School Committee member Michelle Grodsky, who also served on the subcommittee, said she spoke with past clients of Ray and Associates from school districts in states such as Florida and Pennsylvania, all of which gave no negative feedback regarding the firm.
She added that a list of past client references included a district leadership role in Springfield, a superintendent search for Wareham Public Schools and a principal search in Boston Public Schools.
“One thing that I can say is that they do the initial round of vetting the candidates for us,” Grodsky said. “They provide us with video feed of the interviews.”
Clark said Ray and Associates was the only firm to provide the district with the option of video capabilities and to watch the initial screenings.
“The scope of the search is completely dependent on the direction of the School Committee,” he added. “If we decide we want to do a nationwide search, that’s something that they have to factor in.”
School Committee member John Fitzgerald said NESDEC would likely have the most knowledge regarding a candidate hailing from Massachusetts and the School Committee previously chose the firm during the previous superintendent search.
After the vote, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Thomas Mazza recommended appropriating $30,000 from the School Choice fund for the one-time expenditure, which was approved by the committee.