Out-of-district superintendent candidates named

LYNN – Four of the five out-of-district candidates to replace retiring Superintendent of Schools Nicholas Kostan have been identified by the School Department, and a fifth candidate has dropped out of the running, officials said Wednesday.
Human Resources Director Patricia Libby said Wednesday that four additional candidates have agreed to interview for the position, joining Lynn Deputy Superintendents Jaye Warry and Catherine Latham, Ford School Principal Claire Crane and Classical High School Principal Warren White, who have applied from within the district.
The four outside candidates are former Superintendent of Ayer Public Schools Lore Nielsen, Superintendent of Taunton Public Schools Arthur W. Stellar, Deputy Superintendent of Worcester Public Schools Stephen Mills and Newton South High School Principal Brian Salzer.
While Libby would not release personal information for each candidate, at least one of the applicants, Stellar, has significant experience as an urban superintendent, serving as deputy superintendent and later acting superintendent in Boston, and also as superintendent in Oklahoma City.
With eight candidates all boasting significant administrative experience, the School Committee has decided to interview all eight as semi-finalists rather than send the process to a screening committee.
That decision backs comments made by committee members throughout the job posting process that the next superintendent should be the most qualified with the best interests of the students in mind, not just a person from the district who is deemed next in line for the job.
School Committee Chair Mayor Edward J. Clancy has made no secret of the fact that he would have preferred to hire White as an interim this winter and conduct a larger search this summer to keep the current administrative team in tact, but he is not necessarily looking at Classical’s principal as a favorite going forward.
With little knowledge of the outside candidates, Clancy says he has no one in mind to step into the position, unlike seven years ago when he pushed hard for Kostan to get the job.
Now less than a month away from Kostan’s official retirement, Clancy is looking forward to meeting and listening to all of the candidates, and selecting the best leader for the schools.
“This process is not a charade, like I have said before, I have no one in mind that should take the job this time around,” he said. “If I were to handicap this race, I would say this thing is wide open. There isn’t a favorite, it could be someone from inside the department or it could be an outsider.”
First and foremost, Clancy said he would be looking for someone with experience and enough grit to make tough decisions during what promises to be a very difficult budget negotiation this spring.
“The first thing you look at is the paperwork, obviously, to determine if that person comes from an urban setting, that is one leg up right there,” he said. “Second you want to make sure they have administrative experience, and most of all you want someone who is going to make tough decisions.
“You could hire the greatest educator – you could hire Horace Mann (referring to the well-known 19th century educator and politician credited as the ?father of American education’) but if Horace Mann was a procrastinator, if he sat back when it was time to make tough decisions, he would not fit the model of what the city of Lynn needs in the administrative part of that position.”
Libby said that a definite interview schedule should be set by the end of the week, and committee members have expressed a desire to hire the next superintendent before the Christmas break.