Candidate withdraws from Saugus Superintendent race

SAUGUS – The list to fill the Superintendent of Schools position just got shorter while the race to fill the position has gotten a whole lot longer.A second candidate for the job withdrew her name from contention leaving only one prospect and five potential candidates in her wake.School Committee Chairman Joseph Malone admitted the news caught him off guard.”I’m very surprised,” he said Wednesday. “We were supposed to interview her (tonight).”Malone said he didn’t know why Mary Dickerson of Texas withdrew her name, but suspected the distance and cost of living might have something to do with it.Malone said there is some cause for concern since today is May 1 and Superintendent Keith Manville will retire on June 30.Initially the School Committee had hoped to name a replacement by March but that plan quickly fell by the wayside. The candidate search wasn’t even narrowed to three names until late March.Before the final interviews even got under way one candidate, Brook Clenchy of Maine, pulled out to take a job in Winchendon.School Committee members did interview Donald Ciampa last month and planned on interviewing Dickerson tonight. Committee members only learned that she had decided to withdraw her name Wednesday.Malone said he is hopeful that a decision as to the committee’s next move will come in the next 24-48 hours.”We have five resumes we’re looking at too,” he said.Malone said the committee received five additional candidate packages after the final three interviews were set. The job posting for the position had no deadline so the committee could accept the packages. An abbreviated search committee is going over the resumes and will determine if any should be brought in for an interview.Malone said an unfilled superintendent spot also impacts the department’s plans for filling he pupil personnel director’s position, which will open when Pupil Personnel Director Judy Masucci retires on June 30.Masucci is responsible for handling all the department’s Special Education issues. Ideally, Malone said a new superintendent would want to choose his or her own special education director, but he said that might not be possible now. If the search for a new superintendent continues to drag on Malone said they might be forced to open a second search to fill Masucci’s job as well.