Saugus super search stalls

SAUGUS – The first scheduled finalist interview to fill the superintendent position is over before it started.Superintendent Keith Manville confirmed that candidate Brooke Clenchy, who was scheduled to appear before the School Committee tonight, has withdrawn from the race.Manville said when Clenchy was told she was a finalist for his position, she was honest with the committee.”She told them she had scheduled a finalist interview for March 27 with another school and said if they offered her the job and they could hammer out a deal she would probably take the job,” he said. “She was very up front with us.”Saugus’s loss is apparently Winchendon’s gain because Manville said Clenchy did take the position.There are still two other finalists on tap to be interviewed. Those finalists include Dr. Mary Dickerson and Donald Ciampa.Dickerson will travel from Texas for her interview, but School Committee member Christine Wilson said she comes with local ties.Dickerson holds a doctorate from Boston College and did her undergraduate work at Leslie College and Harvard University.She does not come with superintendent experience per se, but Wilson said that certainly doesn’t disqualify her for the job. Dickerson is currently the head of a private middle school in San Antonio and, according to Wilson, is ready to make a move back to the northeast.Ciampa currently serves as a high school principal and assistant superintendent in Tyingsborough at the moment.Clenchy was the only candidate who was an experienced superintendent, although she had taken a year off and wasn’t working until she accepted the job in Winchendon.Interviews for the other two candidates will be held on April 10 and April 17. Wilson said if for some reason neither remaining candidate rises to the top, the committee will be forced to start all over again.