The Old Rochester Regional School Committee and Massachusetts Superintendency Union #55 voted to hire the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) as its consultant to assist them in the search for a new school superintendent during a joint meeting on October 9.
ORR School Committee Chairman Carey Humphrey said representatives from four different consulting groups recently made presentations before the chairmen of the four Tri-Town school committees, with one clear candidate emerging – MASC.
“I came in with a slight bit of an attitude because we had to reschedule this particular meeting (with the MASC representative),” said Humphrey. “But I can tell you, his presentation blew me away.” He added, “I was very impressed with them.”
MASC “checked all the boxes,” said Humphrey.
Superintendency Chairman Sharon Hartley said remotely via phone that she had reached out to several regional school districts for references on the four consultant groups, and the only ones to reply to her inquiry were ones that used MASC.
“They all strongly stated that MASC did an outstanding job,” Hartley said, “and they were really satisfied and found a consultant that found a superintendent that met their… particular needs.”
Humphrey said that MASC came in second out of the four when it came to cost, but MASC had offered to match the best offer,
“Even if they weren’t matching it… I would still recommend MASC,” said Humphrey.
ORR School Committee member Jim Muse pressed for an internal search for a candidate before branching out nationally, saying, “We should be looking at an internal search immediately in parallel with that, if in fact we have a highly qualified person internally who wants to apply…”
The ORR School Committee vote to hire MASC was unanimous, but the Superintendency side vote, although in favor of MASC by majority, had two dissenting votes.
The next step for the ‘Joint’ is to develop specific criteria for the type of superintendent the school districts seek with the assistance of surveys of students, parents, faculty, and school committee members, and appoint a search committee of no more that 11 members.
“Everybody’s a stakeholder, whether you have kids or you don’t have kids,” said Rochester School Committee member Anne Fernandez, acting chairman of the Superintendency Union that evening. “Whatever you are – if you’re a storekeeper, everybody has criteria and the consultant will be driving that train.”
The goal is to hire a new superintendent by the end of January 2020.
The next joint meeting of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee and Superintendency Union #55 is scheduled for December 12 at 6:30 pm in the ORR Junior High media room.
Joint Meeting of the School Committees
By Jean Perry