School Committee Chair selects Superintendent Search Committee

First Meeting of Search Committee Held on October 18

Following the selection of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates (HYA) to be the recruiting firm to assist Newton Public Schools in hiring the next district Superintendent, the School Committee Chair Tamika Olszewski (Ward 4) announced on October 3 a general solicitation to the community seeking applicants to join the Superintendent Search Committee. The Search Committee will work with HYA to compose a target candidate profile and then vet and select candidates to be finalists presented to the full School Committee.

On October 17, the full composition of the Search Committee was announced, including those selected from the community applicant pool. The 13-member Search Committee is comprised of:

3 School Committee Members (Ms. Olszewski, Rajeev Parlikar (Ward 1), Emily Prenner (Ward 5))
2 NPS Central Office Administrators
2 NPS Principals (Zervas Elementary School, Day Middle School)
1 NPS Reading Specialist
1 NPS Custodian
2 NPS Parents (one who is a SEPAC Board Member and one who works for an educational non-profit organization)
1 Student (Newton South High School junior)
1 non-parent Newton resident

The first meeting of the Search Committee on October 18 was originally scheduled to be a closed executive session, but on October 17 it was changed to an open meeting. The Committee began with introductions to each other and then voted to approve items including making the identities of Superintendent applicants confidential to anyone outside the Search Committee and setting the advertised salary for the position at approximately $300,000 per year. The Search Committee was also charged with choosing members of the community to participate in focus groups with HYA to define the candidate profile. Additionally, a community-wide survey asking “stakeholders” their preferences for the candidate profile was scheduled to be distributed on October 20.

According to the posted timeline, outreach efforts to gather input from families and the community will continue until November 30, and the position will be posted on December 31. The Search Committee and HYA will work together into Spring to “review data, identify candidates, and interview finalists” with the aim of having the new permanent Superintendent in place by July 1, the start of the 2023-24 fiscal year. However, the discussion during the first meeting indicated this timeline may be accelerated.

School Committee Chair selects Superintendent Search Committee

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