Schools

Lone Interim Superintendent Candidate to Interview Monday

Screening panel members looking for an interim superintendent have settled on a finalist.

Committee members seeking interim superintendent candidates for Swampscott schools have found one person who is well suited to meet the district's needs, said Rick Kraft, a member of both the School Committee member and interim search panel.

That candidate is Garry Murphy, a former superintendent in the Triton Regional School District. He will interview in public before the Swampscott School Committee 5 p.m. on Monday at Swampscott High School.

He will come to the committee recommended by the search panel.

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If Monday's interview goes well, the plan is to bring Murphy's recommendation to the School Committee for a vote on Wednesday, April 24.

Originally, the screening committee planned to bring three or four finalists to the School Committee for public interviews but panel members are confident Murphy's experiences are very well aligned with the job's duties, Kraft said.

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He has experience both as a regular superintendent and as an interim superintendent, is very well respected in the field and has experience in Swampscott, consulting in the district several years ago, the screening committee member said.

School Committee members said at their last meeting that they wanted an interim superintendent who would vigorously follow through with existing programs and initiatives not just serve as a placeholder.

Murphy is now serving as interim superintendent in Wakefield, Kraft said.

Swampscott's interim superintendent is scheduled to start July 1.

Search panelists have yet to announce how long the interim will serve.

The panel received 15 applications, and narrowed the field to eight candidates before they decided to recommend Murphy, Kraft said. 

He and School Committee member Ted Delano are joined on the search group by four of the district's five principals, teachers Tom Reid and Amy Jalbert, Business Manager Ed Cronin,  Information Technology Director Kevin Kaczynski and Town Administrator Tom Younger.

Superintendent Lynne Celli will serve in the coming school year as executive superintendent for special projects, and is scheduled to earn $85,000, or half her current $170,000 salary.

The superintendent's special projects work starts July 1, 2013. Responsibilities will include the following:

  • work on the district's elementary school building needs project
  • pursuing Chapter 70 and other state and federal funding 
  • pursuing grant funding
  • alignment of curriculum including STEM programs

School Committee members said earlier that they hope to hire the interim superintendent without spending any more money than the district would have spent had no changes been made.

" ...  we will keep the combined cost of both the interim Superintendent and Dr. Celli’s new position very close to the current year’s cost of a single full-time Superintendent," the committee said in a statement released by the chairman, Larry Beaupre.


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