The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Portland superintendent search ramping up
PORTLAND — The search for a new superintendent of schools is ramping up.
The chairwoman of the Board of Education is recruiting nonvoting members to aid the search committee.
Superintendent of Schools Philip B. O’Reilly announced he will step down as superintendent at the end of the school year.
O’Reilly, who has been superintendent since 2014, had originally indicated he would step down last year. But school board members, buttressed by town officials, prevailed upon
O’Reilly to stay for another year.
The full Board of Education is serving as the hiring committee.
Board Chairwoman Sharon A. Peters recently sent emails to officials, including First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield, seeking volunteers to participate in interviewing candidates for the superintendent’s position.
“The board is very interested in obtaining the expertise and hearing the opinions and thoughts about each of the candidates as we move forward with this process,” Peters wrote in her email.
And so, “I am writing to invite a member of each of your respective groups to participate with the Board of Education Hiring Committee in interviewing candidates for the Superintendent’s position, she said.
The deadline for submitting applications for the superintendent’s post is Jan. 3, Peters said in an email.
The board’s goal is to have a candidate chosen in early February, Peters said.
In addition to Bransfield, the email was sent to the respective presidents of the teachers’ union and the administrators’ union.
During last week’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting, Selectman Louis J. Pear volunteered to serve as the board’s representative to the search committee.
Pear was an educator in the Rocky Hill school system for some three decades.
After retiring from Rocky Hill, he went to work for the Connecticut Association of Schools dealing with elementary education issues, according to the Hartford Courant.
Pear and the union representatives “will be advisory, in that they will have full participation in the interview process but will not be voting members of said committee,” Peters said in her email.
“I would ask that each of
you extend this invitation to a member willing to take on this responsibility and who is available to attend all of the following meetings,” she said.
“I have included a number of meeting dates for which we would require their attendance, Peters said. “As you will see there is an initial public meeting, and two rounds of interviews scheduled in January.”
The initial public meeting will be held Jan. 8.
During that meeting, the
hiring committee will “finalize the first round of applicants,” Peters said.
Two meetings —one on Jan. 13, the other on Jan. 20 — will be held to conductthe first round of interviews.
The second round of interviews will be conducted beginning at a Jan. 30 meeting, Peters said.
In her email message, Peters acknowledged the Jan. 20 meeting will be held on the Martin Luther King holiday.
“We anticipate these sessions to be fairly lengthy,” she said.
“We understand the time commitment and would
expect each participant to be present for all interviews and discussions,” Peters added.
The board has also retained the services of veteran educator Joseph V. Eradi to assist in the search process.
An educator for 40 years, including 20 years working in Southington, Eradi was named superintendent in Newtown in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre.
He retired following that assignment and then established the JE Consulting firm.
Earlier this year, he assisted Cromwell in their search for a new superintendent.
Since his hiring by Portland, Eradi “has held a number of meetings with various stakeholders over the past few months for input into the development of a profile for our next superintendent,” Peters said.
On Jan. 8, the board will hold an informational meeting during which Eradi will share the community profile he developed through these stakeholder meetings,” Peters said.
“This information will serve to guide the Hiring Committee as we work through the hiring process,” she added.