By Lisa Scagliotti
WATERBURY ROUNDABOUT
A veteran superintendent from Pennsylvania, a top administrator in one of Vermont’s largest school districts, and the 2021 Vermont Superintendent of the year.
That describes the pool of three finalist candidates in the search for the next superintendent for the Harwood Unified Union School District when Superintendent Brigid Nease steps down in June.
By the end of this week, the Harwood school board could offer the position to one of them.
As the Waterbury Reader went to press this week, the candidates were in the midst of tours, meetings and interviews with the school board. Videos were being recorded with each of the contenders to post on the school district website, HUUSD.org, by Tuesday evening.
The public was invited to watch the clips and fill out an online form with feedback about the candidates before midnight Wednesday, Feb. 2. The short time period was necessary ahead of the school board’s Thursday evening meeting to discuss the choices and potentially choose one to offer the position to.
The timing was tight given that the two Vermont candidates were also the only two finalists up for consideration in the neighboring Washington Central Unified Union School District that covers Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester including U-32 High School. Interviews, public forums, and a board meeting were scheduled there for Wednesday, Feb. 2.
The steps are similar to those unfolding around Vermont in multiple searches for new top administrators in a variety of school districts.
The finalistsFrom 13 applications submitted between late November and Jan.3, the Harwood preliminary search committee narrowed the candidate pool to seven earlier this month. Each applicant was asked to submit additional information in a video. The search committee then conducted a first round of interviews and trimmed the list to three finalists that school board Chair Torrey Smith shared last week:
— Mike Leichliter, Superintendent of the Penn Manor School District in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
— Zach McLaughlin, Superintendent of the Springfield (Vt.) School District
— Meagan Roy, Director of Student Support Services in Chittenden County’s Champlain Valley School District
Leichliter in October announced that he intended to retire from the Penn Manor district no later than Aug. 31, 2022. He has been superintendent there since 2009 and previously served as a high school assistant principal, a middle school principal, and the district’s assistant superintendent, according to the school district’s website.
The Penn Manor district is in southeast Pennsylvania, about 70 miles west of Philadelphia. It has seven elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school, and its 2020 enrollment was just under 5,500 students.
The Springfield School District where McLaughlin has been superintendent since 2013 is much smaller with two elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and approximately 1,100 pupils in 2020, according to that district’s website.
In June 2021 McLaughlin received recognition from peers when he was named Vermont’s Superintendent of the Year in June by the Vermont Superintendents Association. That announcement noted that he has worked in the Springfield School District since July 2010 when he started as an assistant principal at Springfield High School. Since then he has held multiple roles including director of curriculum, and assistant superintendent.
Meagan Roy’s background is in special education where she has been an administrator for years. Her role heading Student Support Services in the Champlain Valley School District involves managing the complex system of state and federal programs and services that provide safety nets for students with a myriad of special needs to ensure that they are successful in learning.
Roy also was honored by the Vermont Superintendents Association and the Vermont Council of Special Education Administrators. In 2015, the groups named her Vermont State Special Education Director of the Year, a distinction to those who demonstrate exemplary effort on behalf of children with special needs. At the time she was the special education administrator for Chittenden South Supervisory Union which several years later consolidated into the Champlain Valley district. Covering Williston, Shelburne, Hinesburg, Charlotte and St. George, the district has just under 3,900 students.
The three have applied to take over when Nease steps down at the end of June. Nease has led the district since 2009. And in addition to filling the superintendent’s position, the district’s Finance and Operations Manager Michelle Baker has announced her plans to resign at the end of this school year. The school board also has decided to create a human resources director position starting in the 2023 budget year, so that will add another new member to the district’s administrative team.
A job-seeker’s marketIn an email to Waterbury Roundabout, Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, said there will be 12 “transitions” in superintendent positions in Vermont as of June 30, 2022.
“There are seven districts or supervisory unions with superintendents who will be leaving/or who have left effective June 30,” he said, noting that Nease falls into that category along with Jeanne Collins in Rutland Northeast.
There are currently five interim superintendents serving school districts/supervisory unions in Vermont, Francis continued. “In two of those districts, the interim superintendent has been hired to start in the permanent position as of July 1, 2022.” In another instance, the interim is the choice for the permanent position and details are being worked out. And in two of the school districts — including Washington Central — search processes are underway, he said.
Francis said there were fewer transitions in 2021 but 2020 saw about a dozen as well.
Asked about the competing job interviews for two of the three finalists for the Harwood job, board Chair Smith said she knew Roy and McLaughlin were applying elsewhere. “I did not know until earlier that WCUUSD was having an event on the 2nd as well. But it does make some sense, as everyone is trying to get out ahead and snag the strong candidates before they go elsewhere,” she said.
The search process in Washington Central has been on a parallel track with Harwood’s in recent weeks.
Just as the 2021-22 school year began in late August, that district’s school board and former superintendent Bryan Olkowski signed off on a separation agreement that included his resignation effective Sept. 1, just one year into a two-year contract. The departure followed a May no-confidence vote in Olkowski by district staff.
The Washington Central school board in turn temporarily promoted Jennifer Miller-Arsenault from curriculum director to acting superintendent, a position she currently holds. A letter posted from Washington Central School Board Chair Flor Diaz Smith describes a process similar to that taken in the Harwood district to arrive at the finalist stage: “Students, employees, citizens and board members worked with a search consultant in considering the applicants.”
Just as with the Harwood position, the start date for the new Washington Central superintendent to start work would be July 1. At that time, Miller-Arsenault would resume her role as director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, Diaz Smith writes.
Meanwhile in Springfield, McLaughlin’s contract ends June 30 and the search for his replacement appears to be following a similar path as with Harwood and Washington Central.
In January 2021, the Springfield School Board made a controversial decision not to renew McLaughlin’s contract, which would have meant his contract was to end June 30, 2021.
The move sparked a huge outcry from educators in the district and the public, attracting more than 100 people to public meetings held via video conference. The school board quickly shifted course, asking McLaughlin to stay on given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and time needed to conduct a search for a replacement. He agreed to a one-year contract that ends this June. A few months later, the superintendents association of which he is a trustee awarded him the Superintendent of the Year honor.
According to the Springfield district’s website, superintendent candidate interviews were ongoing and were to continue this week as well.
Interviews and Harwood school board deliberations are all planned for executive session. Smith said if the board makes a choice this week and negotiates a contract, the new superintendent would be announced and appointed at the Feb. 9 board meeting.
Details about the HUUSD superintendent search are on the district website, HUUSD.org under the Superintendent Search tab.
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