A new volunteer committee to review initial applicants for superintendent of the Gill-Montague Regional School District is being put together, and is seeking members now.
The committee has slots for residents of Gill, Montague and Erving, students and several categories of school staff members. The screening committee will review the initial applications for the superintendent position, interview a select group of candidates, and then choose a handful to be interviewed by the School Committee.
The reason for the screening committee, as the School Committee has discussed previously, is to allow for the early stages of the hiring process to be done privately. (If the School Committee handled the entire process itself, it would have to be done in public meetings.) This privacy tends to encourage greater interest in the position, said the School Committee’s consultant in this hiring process, Tracy Novick of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
Novick will help to coordinate the process logistically, but all decisions are left to the School Committee, unless otherwise delegated to Novick or the screening committee.
During a meeting Tuesday, the School Committee and Novick decided on 14 membership slots for the screening committee, but added that the committee may ultimately have fewer members than that if there is less interest.
Slots are open for:
■two students;
■two to three parents or guardians of students in the district;
■two to three community members or civic leaders from Gill, Montague or Erving;
■one school principal;
■one central office administrator;
■two school teachers;
■one district administrative assistant;
■and one “support staff” member, such as a custodian or cafeteria worker.
The membership categories were intended to include all relevant stakeholders, said School Committee Chair Jane Oakes.
Members must be able to commit to dates for the committee’s meetings. Meetings will be in the evenings, Novick said, but exact times have not been publicized yet.
■An orientation meeting with Novick will be on Feb. 13.
■Selection of candidates to be interviewed by the screening committee will be on Feb. 24. Committee members will be expected to review candidates’ applications before that meeting.
■Interviews will be on March 3, 4 and 5.
The criteria for choosing candidates are largely based on surveys conducted recently by Novick, in which community members, school staff and students discussed what they see as the district’s strengths and weaknesses, and what qualities they view as being important in the district’s leadership now.
The survey received 100 responses, which Novick said is a good result for a district of this size. She also noted that there was a relatively high degree of interest from district employees.
After the screening committee’s interviews in March, it will recommend three to five candidates to be interviewed by the School Committee. This will be the end of the screening committee’s work.
To apply, email Novick at tnovick@masc.org. Put in the subject line “Gill-Montague screening committee,” and note in your email which slot you are applying for.
The deadline for applications to the screening committee is Feb. 7. Novick will review the applications with Oakes, and they will announce the membership of the screening committee on Feb. 10.
“People have been communicating their interest to me,” Oakes said. “The sooner we can get this out, the better.”
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 261.