PEABODY — Assistant superintendent Cara Murtagh is among the five candidates the School Committee will consider for the district’s top job.
Tuesday night, the committee accepted the names of five candidates for superintendent and set aside interviews for the position at the Higgins Middle School on Wednesday, Nov. 8 and Monday, Nov. 13.
“The School Committee wanted to be the first city to initiate a superintendent search this year to bring in a broader range of candidates,” said Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr. “I feel very strongly about this group of candidates.”
The School Committee conducted a search for a new superintendent last year, but in the end decided to extend another one-year contract to interim Superintendent Herb Levine. Several committee members said they felt the board got a late jump on the search process and missed out on bringing in a top-tier superintendent candidate.
A total of 15 candidates applied for the superintendent job. Consultant Glenn Koocher of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees whittled that list down to five names, with the School Committee looking to make a final decision on a hire by the end of the calendar year, according to Bettencourt.
In addition to Murtagh, the district’s assistant superintendent since 2012, the candidates slated for interviews are Wilmington assistant superintendent and former Beverly High School Principal Sean Gallagher, Weymouth Assistant Superintendent Susan Kustka, Medford High School Headmaster John Perella, and Alexandra Montes-McNeil, an instructional superintendent on the superintendent leadership team for the Boston public schools.
“These five finalists have extensive administrative experience, and I know that was important to the School Committee,” said the mayor. “This is a large district with diverse challenges.”
School Committee member Beverley Ann Griffin Dunne said she is looking forward to the interview process and learning more about the candidates. She said she’s also happy with how the search process is working out this year.
“I asked Glenn Koocher if other cities were conducting superintendent searches, and he said no, we are ahead of everyone,” said Dunne. “I feel good about the process … I think it will be good for us to have a good pool of people.”
While the majority of the candidates presented to the committee have district-wide administrative experience, Dunne said she still has some concerns because none of them have served as a superintendent.
“For anyone, it is going to be a step up,” she said.
Once the interviews are completed early next month, Bettencourt said he expects the committee to move forward with site visits and additional interviews for two or three finalists, with a final vote being taken by the middle of December.
The position was advertised with a salary between $175,000-$190,000.
