BMR names finalists for school superintendent post
BLACKSTONE – The three candidates looking to become the Blackstone-Millville Regional School District’s next superintendent will be interviewed by the Regional School Committee beginning Friday in a format that will be open to the public, school officials have announced.
The interviews will be held over a period of three nights – one night per candidate – at 7:30 p.m. on Fri- day (Feb. 9); Monday, Feb. 12; and Tuesday, Feb. 13 at venues to be announced.
Jason DeFalco, deputy superintendent of schools for the New Bedford Public School system; Richard Drolet, director of curriculum, instruction, assessment and accountability for the Uxbridge Public School system; and Kevin McNamara, principal of Lincoln High School, are the three finalists announced by the committee last week.
Each of the interviews will be preceded by a full day of meet and greets and school building tours that will begin at 9:30 a.m. There will be a special meet and greet with school department staff and visits to Blackstone and Millville town halls where the candidates will be introduced to town leaders.
The three veteran educators were recommended by an 11-member preliminary screening committee that reviewed candidate applications and narrowed down the list of candidates for closed-door interviews last month. The screening commit- tee forwarded the names of the three finalists to the School Committee on Jan. 25 and the school board made an official announcement last Thursday.
“We have some extremely talented candidates interested in serving our schools,” said School Committeewoman Erin P. Vinacco, who facilitated the screening committee.
DeFalco holds a Doctorate of Education from Johnson and Wales University and was previously a lead teacher in Grades 3-5. Before becoming deputy superintendent in New Bedford, DeFalco was a middle school principal in Worcester, Somerville and Southbridge.
Drolet holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Johnson and Wales University and has experience as both an elementary and middle school teacher. He was also principal of the McCloskey Middle School in Uxbridge and principal and assistant principal at the North Cumberland Middle School in Cumberland.
McNamara holds a Master’s of Education from Providence College and has experience as a high school English teacher. Before becoming principal at Lincoln High School, he was the director of athletics for Lincoln schools and a an English teacher.
The district is conducting the search dprocess in-house with technical assisttance from the Massachusetts Associaftion of School Committees. f School Supt. Allen W. Himmelberger, the Blackstone-Millville Regional School District’s school chief for the past four tyears, is retiring effective Sept. 1, 2018. The District School Committee is hoping to hire a new school chief by March 1. The committee says it is prepared to offer a multi-year contract with a salary in the range of $150,000-165,000, commensutrate with experience and qualifications, and a competitive benefits package.
The Screening Committee includes Tammy Lemieux, Sarah E. Williams, Jane C. Reggio, Caryn Vernon, Carol Brown, William T. Walsh, Richard V. Crivello, Esther Cote, Julianne Wolford, dRichard Stearman, and Bethany Dunton.
According to the advertisement created by the board, the district is looking for an “innovative leader who has experrience developing long-range and strategic planning goals tas well as developing data-driven goals and implementing dcurriculum focused initiatives to increase student achievement.”
The ideal candidate must be able to demonstrate fiscal management skills and lead the district through the process of integrating technology to support instruction.
The school committee was looking for applicants with a minimum of five years of administrative experience as well as experience teaching in a kindergarten through Grade 12 school system.