SOUTH DEERFIELD — A $135,000 contract has been settled between the Frontier Regional and Union #38 school committees and their new interim superintendent, Darius Modestow.
The unanimous agreement by the 20-plus person joint committees Tuesday evening at the high school settled a few question marks for the district at the start of the summer.
Modestow will serve as the interim superintendent for the coming school year, but under the condition that the School Committee will evaluate how it can make the meetings schedule more manageable.
During his public interview for the position, he said the number of hours to the job and commitment to countless meetings made it “borderline impossible.”
Now officially resigned Superintendent Lynn Carey announced this May she was going to leave the job after two years. Modestow and the Committee have acknowledged the workload was likely a contributing reason to her departure.
Starting his interim position July 1, but filling the role immediately, Modestow and the Committee will have a chance to figure out how to make the position more manageable at a school district that, relative to some of its county peers, is thriving.
Modestow’s contract for interim superintendent will run to June 30, 2019.
His principal contract, which had one more year on it, will grant him a one-year leave, and then instead end June 30, 2020. If Modestow is selected the future superintendent, the particulars of his principal contract will have to be hammered out again.
The district will have to negotiate a new contract regardless of who its new superintendent is following this coming school year.
In a draft of the letter that will go out to residents of the district, signed by Frontier School Committee Chairman Robert Halla and Union #38 Chairman Kenneth Cuddeback, it thanks Carey for her service to the communities and the schools.
“Dr. Carey’s decision to resign left our school committees with a short timeframe in which to seek leadership for the coming year and, after much discussion, the Frontier Regional and Union #38 committees agreed to seek an interim superintendent from within the district,” the draft of the letter reads.
The letter emphasized the district’s pleasure with selecting Modestow, who brings 15 years of administrative experience and 10 years as principal of Frontier Regional School.
“We are confident that Darius is the right candidate to lead our schools into the future,” the letter reads.
Contract negotiations were conducted in executive session, per protocol. When the committee came out of the closed-door meeting, it quickly voted in favor of the contract unanimously. The whole process Tuesday took just under an hour.
“With a group this size, I was pleased we were able to come to a quick resolution,” Cuddeback said after the meeting.