LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield School Committee took another step forward in its search for a new school superintendent to replace Jane Tremblay, who is retiring at the end of the school year.
At its Jan. 22 meeting at the Al Merritt Media and Cultural Center, the committee announced the names of the new members of the screening committee.
Finance Director Tom Geary of the Administrative Leadership Team will chair the committee. The other members are School Committee members Tim Doyle and Phil McQueen; Administrative Leadership Team members, Lynnfield High principal Bob Cleary and Director of Teaching and Learning Kevin Cyr; Lynnfield Teachers’ Association appointees, Lynnfield High teacher Liz LaMonica, Lynnfield Middle School teacher Heather Vowels and Summer Street School teacher Lorie Kelly; elementary school ELA/social studies curriculum director Maureen Fennessey, and parents David Mattingly, Kerry Harrison, Chris Mattia, and Joseph Attubato. Kelly Mertens was nominated as a community representative. An alternate was also selected who will be named at a later date in the event that one of the parents or the community member cannot serve.
The committee conducted focus groups and an online survey to suggestions from parents and other town residents for the screening committee’s composition.
School Committee Chairman Jamie Hayman said that the level of interest among those who wanted to serve on the committee was overwhelming.
“We received far more applications than we ever anticipated for these positions,” said Hayman. “This shows that so many people care so much about the district and want to donate their time, which is really heartening.”
The timetable for the search calls for the position to be posted in early February with committee orientation taking place later in the month.
In early March, the committee will begin meeting to conduct candidate interviews and select semi-finalists. The committee will present a list of finalists to the School Committee in mid to late March after which the School Committee will conduct site visits to finalists’ districts and also conduct public interviews of the finalists.
The goal of the School Committee is to have a new superintendent appointed sometime during the first half of April.
Hayman said that many parents interested in serving had backgrounds in education and that it was important to have a balance of educators and non-educators on the committee.
