MEDFORD — Like a solid, “old school” basketball team, the Medford School Committee on Monday announced it will look “inside” for a candidate to replace outgoing Superintendent of Schools Roy Belson, before it looks outside the Medford Public Schools.
In doing so, the school board will be following past practice from at least the past 50 years and most likely beyond. The superintendent’s post has historically been filled from within the Medford Public School ranks.
The decision to go forward with an internal search came with a presentation of an initial application document for the School Committee’s superintendent search committee’s review by Medford Mayor Stephanie M. Burke, who is also the school board’s chairwoman.
Burke said a final version of the application for an internal candidate will be available in early January, following input from the search committee. The committee has also been tasked with creating a survey designed to draw input from Medford residents.
At Monday’s meeting, both Burke and Belson stressed whichever direction the search committee follows, the next superintendent has to be “right for Medford.”
It has been a lengthy stretch time since Medford has sought a new superintendent and it is believed that the school district has never gone outside its own school system for its leader.
Belson served as superintendent since 1995 and has served the Medford Public Schools for nearly 50 years. A 1965 Medford High School graduate and former Mustang soccer and basketball standout in the early 1960s, served as an assistant superintendent from 1982-1995 before ascending to the top post. He joined the Medford Public Schools as a teacher right out of college in 1969.
All six members of the School Committee comprise the superintendent search committee. They agreed Monday to take Burke’s initial job description and tailor it to a more complete at the next School Committee meeting on Monday, December 18.
“We would like to see any amendments you would like to make at Monday’s meeting,” she said. Some basic qualifications outlined in Burke’s initial application are licensure as a superintendent level administrator by the Commonwealth, the ability to assume and perform a lengthy list of administrative tasks and basic knowledge and ability to handle schoolwide curriculum decisions, personnel decisions and communication skills both within the district and externally with Medford residents.
While there was some speculation at Monday’s meeting over some potential internal superintendent candidates within the Medford Public Schools, one name that could possibly surface is Medford High School headmaster Dr. John Perella, who was recently a finalist for the Peabody Public Schools superintendent’s post before another candidate was hired.
