SAUGUS — The Saugus School Committee wrapped up its second round of virtual candidate interviews Wednesday as the district’s search to replace Superintendent of Schools Dr. David DeRuosi draws to a close.
Last week, the committee voted (5-0) to accept a screening subcommittee’s recommendations of four finalists, one of whom will go on to replace DeRuosi following his retirement June 30.
Dr. Margaret Ferrick, deputy superintendent for the Southbridge Public Schools, and Erin McMahon, senior advisor to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education commissioner, were both given an hour and a half Wednesday evening to lay out their plans for the district and to answer questions posed by School Committee members, teachers and parents.
“(The candidates) have all definitely done their homework, and, judging by their resumes, it’s not just them talking the talk, it looks like they’ve walked the walk as well,” Committee Chair Thomas Whittredge said Thursday.
During their interview sessions, both candidates drew heavily on their previous experiences in other districts to explain how they would approach each issue, with McMahon, who also served as superintendent of the Denver, Colo., public school system, citing the work she did to bring up reading levels in Denver elementary schools as an example of how she would approach improving student achievement in Saugus.
Under her leadership, McMahon said reading levels saw a 17 percent gain for Denver students in kindergarten through third grade in a single year — the largest increase the district had ever seen.
“Across 110 elementary schools, we found we were really struggling with early literacy,” McMahon said. “My team developed an early literacy plan that essentially put in place professional development on foundations for early literacy across 2,400 teachers, paraprofessionals, and principals, and over a summer we trained every single pre-k through third grade teacher in Denver Public Schools.
“It was the first time that we as a community said, ‘We are going to make sure that every child reads by age 8.’ For me, student achievement is not just ‘Are kids progressing at grade level?’ It’s also ‘Are kids progressing on the way to whatever life choice they want to see happen?’”
Ferrick, who described herself as a social worker by training, said she considers school climate to be a crucial aspect of engaging both students and educators.
“In Southbridge, we created a strategic plan that focused very strongly on two priorities: teaching and learning, and climate and culture,” Ferrick said. “You will not see student achievement increase if you don’t do them together. You have to ensure you’re creating a predictable, safe learning environment for students and for staff so they can access the high rigorous curriculum.”
She also emphasized the importance of creating a standard-based rigorous curriculum for grades K-12.
“We have to make sure our teachers have everything they need to make sure the students are learning. After we brought in curriculum (in Southbridge) … the last three years, what we’ve done is really support teachers in their practice, and focus on the assessment cycle.
“You have the curriculum, you have the teacher practice, and then you have the learning outcomes through the assessment cycle, which is formative and summative assessments, like making sure the teachers are aware of how kids are learning through each lesson.
“We do that in conjunction with explicitly teaching behavioral expectations, honoring when kids are doing awesome jobs when they’re doing really well, and then holding kids and staff accountable at the same time to make sure we’re moving in the right direction,” Ferrick said.
Public interviews represent one of the final stages of the district’s search to replace DeRuosi, who first joined the district in 2016. The other two finalists, Frank Tiano, current superintendent of the Uxbridge Public Schools, and Eric Tracy, principal of Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School, completed their interviews Tuesday (Item, April 28).
A final vote to select the district’s new superintendent is scheduled to take place during a School Committee meeting next week.
“I’m really impressed with all the candidates. It really goes to show the search committee did an incredible job bringing forth the best four candidates,” Whittredge said. “With us breaking down from six school buildings to three, we’re going to need someone willing to hit the ground running.”
All four finalists’ resumes are available for viewing at https://www.nesdec.org/SaugusSuptFinalistResumes/.
