Chelsea hasn’t needed to recruit a superintendent in decades, which means no current job description exists for the position.
Boston University (BU) oversaw the public schools for years and appointed superintendents during that period. When Supt. Mary Bourque assumed her role, her appointment had already been determined—she would replace Tom Kingston, BU’s final appointee to the position.
The School Committee now faces an unfamiliar challenge: selecting a new superintendent for the first time in 30 or 40 years.
“This is all new to all of us,” Chair Rich Maronski stated. “It’s even new to the School Department. They don’t even have a
job description for superintendent. They have to create one now, which tells
you how long it’s been.”
According to Bourque, the Collins Center previously assisted the schools in recruiting Monica Lamboy as business administrator, taking over from Gerry McCue. The firm also handled recruitment for City Manager Tom Ambrosino and former City Manager Jay Ash, she noted.
“The first couple of steps will go slowly,
but from the middle of February to May it will be intense,” Bourque explained. “I can’t
be involved in it then. I’ll be more of the logistics part. There is a lot of
community input, but it’s a School Committee decision. Chelsea hasn’t had a
search since before BU…One interesting point is we don’t have any internal
candidates. In Revere, Supt. Paul Dakin was succeeded by an internal candidate,
Dianne Kelly. None of our internal candidates feel they are ready to move up.
Because of that, it’s going to be an outside candidate.”
On Jan. 10, Maronski, Supt. Bourque and Committee members gathered with representatives from the Collins Center to review search timelines and criteria.
“It’s all structured by the Collins Center,”
Maronski stated. “They are looking at the May 2 School Committee meeting for us to vote
on this. That would be the first Thursday in May. I believe they will want to
get it done by June because that’s a very busy month for us. I think the
Collins Center is pretty good. They had all the dates worked out and structured
for us. That helps.”
Around Feb. 8, the job posting will be released and focus groups comprising teachers, staff, parents and community representatives will begin meeting. Their responsibility will be developing a candidate profile for the Screening Committee to use when evaluating applications.
On March 7, the School Committee will appoint the Screening Committee, which will include City Manager Tom Ambrosino along with parents and teachers.
April will see private candidate interviews conducted, with finalists presented publicly to the Committee around April 4. Public interviews and community forums are scheduled for April 22 to 25.
Contract signing is targeted for May 10.
Bourque intends to remain through December 2019 to mentor the incoming superintendent and facilitate their transition into the “Chelsea way.” Since it will be an outside candidate, she said that will be critical. “Chelsea has a very strong reputation and coming
in with a solid transition plan with the exiting superintendent to help them is
something people will like,” she said. “At the same time, it is an urban district
and it is a complex district. Some people don’t like that, others do.”