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Date: 2/23/2021
WESTHAMPTON – The Hampshire Regional School Committee plans to announce the finalists for the district’s superintendent vacancy in the near future.
In August 2020, former Hampshire Regional Superintendent Aaron Osborne suddenly resigned and was hired as the director of finance for the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District. On Sept. 22, member school committees voted unanimously to hire Michael Sullivan as the interim superintendent to fill in until the end of the 2020-2021 school year.
The district decided to create two committees to help with the search process. Westhampton School Committee Chair Brigid O’Riordan shared that they created a Steering Committee that was to come up with rules for the search and focused on what they would want as a district. The Screening Committee conducted the actual search and interviews.
Sullivan said nothing has delayed their process and they are right on time to the schedule they put forward in December 2020.
During the first week of March, the Hampshire Regional district will announce its finalists for a new superintendent.
Sullivan told Reminder Publishing that the screening committee would conduct two days of interviewing for the first round of candidates on Feb. 24 and 25.
The Screening Committee consists of 14 individuals from the community – Don Willard of Chesterfield-Goshen School Committee, Julianne Tauscher of Southampton School Committee, Morley Cleary of Westhampton School Committee, Matt Wilhelm of Williamsburg School Committee, Margaret Larson of Hampshire Regional School Committee, Matt Roland of Southampton Selectboard, Westhampton Elementary School teacher Deb Connell, Hampshire Regional High School (HRHS) and ATD parent Amy Scully, Admin Assistant Taffy Bassett-Fox, Norris Elementary School Principal Aliza Pluta, Central Office Administrator Nancy Parlakulas, parents Carla Raymond and Sarah Mulvehill, and HRHS student Abigail Thibodeau.
After the first round, they will contact the finalists and if those individuals would still like to be considered, they will be announced sometime during the first week of March.
During the second and third week of March, the district will conduct site visits to the finalist’s districts and the finalists will visit Hampshire Regional.
Sullivan shared that tentatively on March 24 and 25, the School Committees will interview the finalists and by the end of the month, they hope to announce heir new superintendent.
To help with this process, the district is using Tracy Novick, a consultant from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
Reminder Publishing reached out to Novick but received no response as of press time.