New superintendent could be hired by June

March 3, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

WILBRAHAM – The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Committee should hire the district’s new superintendent during the week of June 6.

The Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District’s (HWRSD) new leader would start work July 1 or as soon as possible, according to a brochure for the position, which opened up after Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea accepted the Longmeadow superintendency.

The salary for the position is advertised for $140,000 to $165,000 with a three-year contract. O’Shea’s salary during his first year was $135,000.

School Committee and Superintendent Search Committee Chair Peter Salerno told Reminder Publications the deadline for submitting applications is April 1.

“We are moving quickly,” he stated during a Feb. 25 interview. “The brochure [for the position] has been developed and will be put in the mail within a day or so. The timeline, which I think is one of the most important subjects, has been set.”

He added the position would also be posted on the Massachusetts Association of School Committees’ website.

Salerno the 17-member search committee would select semifinalists by April 15 and the interviews for the semifinalist candidates would be conducted April 20 through May 6. The Search Committee would likely recommend finalists to the School Committee by May 11.

He noted the Search Committee does not have a limit to the number of finalists it could recommend.

“If it’s none, [the School Committee] will say, ‘We have to go back out and look,’” Salerno explained. “If they say, ‘It’s one [finalist],’ that’s unfortunate because then we don’t have a choice and we just have one and we may go back outside and look. We just don’t know.”

He continued, “There may be an internal candidate that suggests himself or herself. All of these things are possibilities. We’re not closing our minds to any of them.”

Candidate and School Committee site visits would likely take place May 16 to 30, according to the brochure.

Salerno said the search committee is currently creating questions for candidates that would center on their qualifications, including examples of leadership characteristics, negotiating union contracts, morale in the candidate’s current organization and how they determined that level of morale.

“Tell me failures, ‘What was your biggest failure and how did you deal with it?’” he stated as a potential question that could be posed to candidates.

Salerno said he believes the next superintendent should have “courage” and “moral convictions” as an implicit standard.

He added, “I want our guy focused on the educational welfare of the children, that is really my objective. [I want a superintendent who is] community responsive – that’s really an important thing.”

Salerno said he also believes HWRSD has been “blessed” in hiring recent superintendents, which include O’Shea as well as his predecessor Paul Gagliarducci.

“I am so proud to have worked alongside them,” he noted. “We’ve had our differences – obviously we would – but we have the interest of our educational process for the children foremost in our minds and that’s what I’m looking to see again.”

Salerno said under O’Shea’s tenure the district secured a new Minnechaug Regional High School and the superintendent also led community discussions about closing Memorial Elementary School in 2010 due to budgetary reasons.

The Search Committee would be provided with legal advice during every step of the search process to avoid any potential legal issues unfolding such as a violation of the Open Meeting Law, Salerno said.

“We’re not going to do anything overt or foolish and that’s why they elected is, at least the School Committee, to make sure that we don’t fall into those kinds of traps,” he said.

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