ATHOL — The Athol-Royalston Regional School Committee burned the midnight oil with deliberations Wednesday night before voting to appoint Darcy Fernandes as the new school superintendent.
Fernandes has been the assistant superintendent of Randolph Public Schools since July 2013 and is a doctorial candidate in educational leadership at Lesley University, having completed all work except her dissertation.
School Committee Chairwoman Deb Kuzmeskas said contract negotiations are expected next week.
The district has been seeking a new superintendent since Steven Meyer announced in April that he had reached a contract agreement with Clinton Public Schools, less than a year after taking the job in Athol. He had been the assistant superintendent for two years prior. Committee members said Meyer’s exact date of departure has not yet been determined.
The committee interviewed three finalists for an hour each in the Athol-Royalston Middle School library on Wednesday, asking Fernandes, Phillip Saisa and Christina Favreau many of the same questions before entering deliberations.
Fernandes lives in Buzzards Bay and said she would move to the Athol area if appointed superintendent. She said she loves western Massachusetts and attended the College of Our Lady of the Elms in Chicopee, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in history/education in 1989.
“If I could have found a position (here) in the ’80s, I would have stayed,” she said.
Fernandes said she feels she has a made a difference in Randolph and wants to do the same in Athol-Royalston. She said she has used “recipes” in other places of employment and wants to put “the right recipe together, by understanding a community’s specific needs.”
In her cover letter to the school district, she explained her current responsibilities in Randolph include overseeing the district’s “Accelerated Improvement Plan,” all curriculum development, and professional development for teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators.
Fernandes said students must always be the first priority of any educator.
“Ultimately, that’s what the community is paying us for,” she said Wednesday, later adding that “if we don’t shoot for the moon, how can we ask our kids to?”
Fernandes said during her interview on Wednesday that she is not interested in coming to Athol-Royalston and leaving in a short amount of time.
Saisa, an Athol resident, is the principal at Overlook Middle School in Ashburnham and received his doctorate in education from Northeastern University in April. Favreau lives in Templeton and works as the director of academic programs at Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School.
You can reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 258. On Twitter: @DomenicPoli