Interviews dates, times set for Lynn super search

LYNN – Former Ayer Public Schools Superintendent Lore Nielsen will be the first of eight candidates interviewed for the Lynn Public Schools Superintendent job next Thursday.Nielsen and Taunton Superintendent Arthur “Art” Stellar will each interview for one hour on Thursday, Dec. 11, kicking off a series of eight superintendent interviews by the school committee over three days.The first interviews will lead into the School Committee’s December meeting Thursday night, a meeting that should be the last for Superintendent Nicholas Kostan, who is set to retire after the Christmas break.The remaining six interviews will take place the following week, with Ford Principal Claire Crane, Worcester Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Stephen Mills and Newton South High School Principal Brian Salzer interviewing for one hour each, in that order, beginning at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 17.Classical High School Principal Warren White and Lynn Deputy Superintendents Cath-erine Latham and Jaye Warry will interview on the same schedule the following day, Thursday, Dec. 18.School Committee Secretary Thomas Iarrobino said Friday that the interview schedule was based on the availability of each candidate, and the fact that three of the four candidates from within the city will interview last is purely coincidental.The first day of interviews will pair two educators with very different backgrounds. While Stellar has made his name in urban environments, serving as an administrator in both Boston and Oklahoma City, Nielson spend the bulk of her administrative career as superintendent in Ayer, a small central Massachusetts town with a population near 8,000.The second day of interviews will pair two outsiders with Crane, who has more experience working in the city of Lynn.Over nearly five decades, Crane has been a teacher and administrator, heading up the Ford K-8 since 1989. Known as a community-oriented educator, her professional journey has led her down the superintendent path before, as she has been a candidate for previous openings in the past and almost became an executive assistant to Superintendent James T. Leonard in 1996.Mills has been a teacher, principal and administrator in Worcester Public Schools for many years, but was never given the chance to interview for the superintendent job in that city after a screening committee failed to name him one of three finalists to replace James Caradonio last summer.A Wisconsin native, Salzer has been principal at Newton South High School since 2006, and prior to his tenure in Newton, Salzer was principal of Sauk Prairie High School in Prairie du Sac, Wisc.The final day of interviews will be the most familiar for the School Committee, as they will sit down with Warry and Latham, who have served as Kostan’s deputies since 2006. Both have significant administrative experience in the city, Warry as former executive director of Curriculum and Instruction and Latham as School Support Coordinator.White, who was a finalist for the deputy superintendent position in 2006, has been principal at Classical since 2004. He has also been principal at Breed Middle School.