Marblehead super search firm forming candidate pool

MARBLEHEAD – Hazard Young Attea and Associates (HYA) of Rosemont, Ill., the search firm that will help the School Committee replace Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac, has already begun attracting candidates for the job.HYA’s John Connolly told the School Committee Monday morning that the opening has been posted on the firm’s Web site and he has received calls expressing interest.”We’re starting to build a pool already,” Connolly said.Connolly and Albert Argenziano will conduct intensive focus groups Nov. 29-30 to develop a profile of Marblehead’s superintendent needs and use that profile, enhanced by the School Committee in December, to whittle down their pool to a group of semi-finalists.With Connolly’s help, the School Committee pared its proposed 14-member search committee down to nine, including two School Committee members (Chairman EuRim Chun and Kathy Leonardson), two teachers to be chosen by the teachers, two parents to be chosen by the parent groups, a principal chosen by the principals, a town official chosen by the selectmen and a central administration representative. The committee dropped its proposal for three at-large Marblehead residents, but residents will have a separate forum of their own.Argenziano told the committee that in two days of public forums at Amherst HYA heard from 223 people.The Search Committee is scheduled to form Jan. 25, interview semi-finalists Jan. 26-27 and present three finalists to the School Committee after Jan. 27.Finalists, whose names will be public, will be interviewed by the School Committee Feb. 1-3 and the committee will announce their appointment by Feb. 11.Leonardson will act as committee liaison with HYA, at Chun’s request.Connolly said it was better to pick search committee members who were neutral in terms of superintendent needs.”The odds are you’re going to get more consistency (with School Committee values) than you think,” he said.Argenziano noted that most other communities that are in a search aren’t expecting to name a superintendent until the end of February at the earliest, putting Marblehead two-three weeks ahead of them.Connolly assured the committee that they would have good candidates to choose from. “Marblehead is not competing with all the communities that are out there,” he said. “The town’s credentials are better.”