SWAMPSCOTT – A student who started in the Swampscott Public Schools as a kindergartner in 2003 will have seen at least seven superintendents by the time he or she graduates from high school.The turnover is now familiar in Swampscott to anyone with students attending the town?s schools in the last decade. With Superintendent Lynne Celli moving to a half-time position as executive superintendent for special projects for the 2013-14 school year, sharing the position with an interim superintendent while a committee searches for permanent superintendent to start in 2014, students, teachers and administration will receive marching orders from three different heads in the span of two years.A school committee meeting held last month to discuss the succession of the superintendent position was packed with parents and teachers who were concerned about how all that transition would affect the students in the district?s five schools.Amy O?Connor, a member of the Stanley School PTO, said at a recent School Committee meeting that she was concerned about the transition periods between moving from superintendent to search committee to interim superintendent while they search for a permanent solution. “The problem is continuity,” she said. “The process is creating less continuity.”O?Connor said she is running for Vice President of the PTO for the next school year because she believe the district “needs more teamwork.”Paul Andrews, director of professional development and government services at Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said parents aren?t wrong to be concerned.?I think it is an issue,” he said. “The superintendent sets a vision for the district. When the individual changes, the vision very often changes, and it means there is a period of time where there is a lack of clarity ? it does ripple down to impact from the students up to the principal.”Andrews said he thought the same could happen when losing a principal. “We say today a tremendous amount is about leadership, and the principal has significant role. That?s the way it goes,” he said.While Swampscott?s version of “Extreme Makeover: School Administration Edition,” plays on, members in the community search for who, or maybe what, is the causing all the drama. Some, like O?Connor, fault the administration. Chris Kennedy, who had a daughter at the middle school, cited a combination of parental interference and lack of leadership.Finance Committee Chairman Don Pinkerton earned applause at the School Committee meeting in February when he said, “I think as a town we need to do a better job of hiring professionals and letting them do their jobs.”When giving his reasons for wishing to leave the district, Swampscott High School Principal Layne Millington said he was uncomfortable with “the dynamics” of the district,” a statement that School Committee Chairman Larry Beaupre said “he couldn?t comment on.” Millington has been hired away to lead perennial Swampscott rival, Marblehead High School.According to Andrews, there is no reason to place blame on the district because the turnover in Swampscott isn?t a town problem, but rather one that the entire state is dealing with.Andrews said the average length of a district superintendent has decreased greatly in the last decade and a half.?It?s far shorter than it used to be,” he said.”The years we had people for 10 or 15 years, those times have changed tremendously.” He estimated the new average term length to be about four to eight years.Swampscott supers since 2003
Brian Coughlin (end March 2004)
Carol Sager (one-year interim)
Matthew Malone (July 2005-Aug. 2009)
Maureen Bingham (one-year intern)
Lynne Celli (start 2010, scheduled to finish July 2014)
Andrews said it?s difficult for districts to find the right “fit” with a superintendent job candidate because there are simply less candidates for the job. “There used to be a much larger group of people in the position. More teachers aspired to be principal and superinten