School Committee and Select Board interview candidates for open School Committee seats

Feb. 27, 2019 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW – The Longmeadow School Committee and Select Board hosted back–to–back joint meetings on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26 to interview 10 candidates for four open positions on the School Committee. Members of the Committee and Board questioned candidates on a variety of topics, ranging from why they feel they’re the most qualified to how they would feel about participating in mediation in the future should a situation arise that could potentially require them to do so.

On Feb. 25, candidates Peter Landon, William Timothy Mitchell, James Ryan, Kevin Ryczek and Kevin Shea interviewed for the positions. Feb. 26 welcomed candidates Gianna Allentuck, Jamie Hensch, Marcie Kearing, William Knowlton and Susan Bell. Bell served for three weeks on the School Committee prior to the interviews so that the Committee could act as a quorum and conduct business. She returned, along with the other candidates, to be considered for one of the four open positions on the Committee until the June town election.

Select Board Chair Mark Gold explained that four of the 10 candidates are public school teachers in different districts, one is a former superintendent, and two are University–level professors.

“We’ve got an amazing group of people here that have applied and I want to compliment them,” Gold expressed to those in attendance.

Backgrounds

Landon shared with the Board and Committee that he once served on the District Learning Team. Additionally, Landon explained that he has spent his life in a classroom as a student as well as teaching for a decade in both the MBA program at Western New England University and the University of Massachusetts Isenberg, teaching classes such as marketing, finance and commercial bank management. Landon is also on the Chamber of Commerce and Springfield’s State Budget Committee.

Moving on to Ryan, he explained that he has years of experience teaching social studies and working with kids and parents. He also shared that he has worked on a couple of boards focusing on drug policy, which in turn addressed things such as homelessness, education, human trafficking and more. Ryan stated he has also worked as a council member on the Village Council, working on policies such as transportation, infrastructure and development of parks. Finally, he has served on two teacher leadership teams.

Shea explained that his dedication to the town has come through the Longmeadow Softball Association, where he has served on the Board for eight years, with the last several years as president. Additionally, he has coached a team for six years and received an award for his dedication to softball in the town. In his professional life, Shea has taught chemistry at Smith College since the year 2000. During his time at Smith, Shea has served on a variety of boards and held a variety of leadership roles including chair of the Chemistry Department, chair of the East Asian Studies Program, director of Shared Center for Teachers and Learning and is the current director of the Science Center.

Ryczek is a former graduate of Longmeadow High School where he then transitioned to Trinity College in Connecticut and studied engineering. Following his graduation from Trinity, Ryczek received his masters in engineering from Stanford. Finally, he received his MBA from Babson College located in Eastern Massachusetts.  Beyond his education, Rcyzek served as a program manager in the medical and aerospace fields doing negotiations with suppliers, customers and personnel. He has also served on Longmeadow’s Finance Committee in the past.

Mitchell, a new resident of Longmeadow, shared that he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and initially in his career he worked in public accounting. He then moved on to work for a couple of corporations; one was as the manager of budgeting and forecasting for a large bank holding company. Additionally, Mitchell stated, that he held other operational roles within those companies. Finally, Mitchell noted that he now works in academics and teaches classes.

Kearing explained that she went to college at the University of North Carolina and majored in public policy and analysis. As a parent in the district, she was a volunteer in the schools over the years. The volunteering piqued her interest, and Kearing decided to go back to school to get her teaching certification. For 12 years she was a teacher in the Longmeadow schools where she started by substitute teaching. Kearing did her student teaching at Wolf Swamp Road School and was subsequently hired at Center School as a kindergarten teacher. While at Center School she also taught first and third grade. After 10 years teaching, she went back to school and received her reading certification. Now, she works in the West Springfield school district because an opportunity became available to become a reading specialist.

Bell reiterated to the Select Board and School Committee that she went to grad school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and moved to Longmeadow six years ago. She also received her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Hartford. She served for 17 years in public education in the Windsor Locks Public Schools where she held a variety of positions including guidance counselor, director of guidance, principal, assistant principal and assistant superintendent for curriculum. Currently, she works for a nonprofit that is working on mastery transcripts for schools which is a new form of transcript that shows the “jagged profile” of students interests, talents and passions.

Hensch shared that he has a “unique skill set” in that he has an extensive business background and an education background. Currently, he owns an Ameriprise Financial business in neighboring East Longmeadow and through that business he has the opportunity to work with a multitude of clients including professors and individuals from many local colleges. Prior to him owning his own business, he was a vice president at a “mutli–billion dollar company” in Keene, New Hampshire, working with legal aspects and compliance in high–finance situations. Back when he was in college, he was on the wrestling team and had the opportunity to be an assistant coach at his alma mater in North Carolina. During that time, he worked with student athletes from both an academic and athletic side. He also became the assistant Athletic Director for finance and worked with coaches to college chancellors.

Knowlton explained to the Board and Committee that he has been a middle school educator for almost 24 years in the East Longmeadow School District. For 12 years he was an inclusion special education teacher, and for the last 10 or 11 years he has served as an English teacher. During this time, he has mainly taught grade eight but also spent a few years teaching grade six. Knowlton has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts as well as a master’s degree from Westfield State College. More recently, he has earned a certificate of advanced graduate study with the University of New England.

Wrapping up the candidates backgrounds, Allentuck stated that she is both a parent and a longtime soccer coach, but recently became a basketball coach in town as well. Additionally, she is a social–emotional behavior councilor in the Springfield Public School district, and is the president of a local non–profit.

Interviews

Starting off the interviews, Landon explained that the reason he decided to apply for the position was that he wanted to help bring back a sense of normalcy and calm to improve the climate of education in Longmeadow, a sentiment, which was echoed by many of the candidates throughout both nights.

“In the wake of everything that transpired that led to these vacancies being open, in all of that there was clearly a breaking of trust between the community and its School Committee and between its government,” Ryan said during his opening statement. “I’m hoping to restore trust to bring my years of experience in the classroom and in policy making to the school system.”

In Shea’s opening statement, he, too, noted the contention that had occurred within the School Committee and the town over the past several months, stating, “I was very disappointed with how things shook out with the last four to six months on the School Committee, I felt there was a lot of acrimony.”

When asked about how the School Committee can work to improve communication between the School Committee and the community, Kearing stated that while she didn’t have the answer, that is something that she believes needs to be a focus. Additionally, she said there should be a lot more communication going out to the public and that newsletters and regular emails are options.

During Bell’s interview, she noted that when she worked in various capacities in the Windsor Locks School District, specifically in the Superintendent position, they had community engagement goals. Monthly or bi–monthly meetings would take place with the School Committee and members of the community including business owners, parents, public safety, the town planner and other officials to have a dialogue about the components of the school districts’ vision.

“That was helpful for the board of education members to get some direct contact and dialogue with folks. They sat back and listened mostly, it was a way to hear and be connected with the community,” Bell explained.

In the minority, resident Jamie Hensch did not have an extensive background working in a school system. Gold questioned Hensch as to what qualifications he felt he could bring in regard to setting policies for public school districts like Longmeadow. Hensch responded, stating that he used to work in a University setting in an administrative position for athletics, where he frequently set compliance and policy for student athletes and coaches.

“A lot of people say there’s a big difference between public and private, and whether it’s a business setting or not. There’s a lot more similarities than I think a lot of people want to give that,” Hensch said.  

In his opening statement, Mitchell explained that he was happy to see that one of Longmeadow’s goals for students is for the students to be prepared to handle change.

“It’s unlikely, obviously, that we can prepare the road for our students, so it is important that we prepare our students for the road. I want to be a part of doing that here in Longmeadow,” Mitchell closed.

Both the meeting on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26 lasted roughly two hours and consisted of various interview topics including special education in town, the school system’s STEM learning, superintendent evaluations and the challenges of the district. To watch the meetings, head over to Longmeadow TV’s livestream at https://livestream.com/longmeadow. The Select Board and School Committee are scheduled to reconvene in a joint meeting at 5:30 p.m. on March 5 to vote for which candidates will fill the four open seats.

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