Newcomer helps lead search for superintendent
School board’s GOP majority pushes for Kuzman to co-chair committee
NEWTOWN — To lead its search for a new superintendent, the Newtown Board of Education wanted a school board member with experience in at least one previous search for the district’s top educator.
The unanimous choice was veteran Democrat Dan Cruson Jr., who participated in the search that hired Lorrie Rodrigue, the current superintendent who announced in December that she will step down at the end of the school year to tend to aging parents.
But the new Republican majority on the sevenmember school board also wanted one of its own recently elected members to co-chair the superintendent search committee.
“Along with the meritorious experience of Mr. Cruson who everyone recognizes, I believe we need a fresh new perspective of one of our newly elected board members and that
person in my opinion should be Janet Kuzman,” said Donald Ramsey, who along with Kuzman and fellow Republican Jennifer Larkin were elected in November, flipping control of the school board from a 4-to-3 Democratic majority to a 4-to-3 Republican majority.
Deborra Zukowski, the Republican school board chair, agreed.
“Having an opportunity for a newbie to actually grow, and in four years or six years have experience to help the next newbie grow, I like that idea quite a lot,” Zukowski said during a school board meeting on Tuesday.
The only dissent on the board came from Democrat John Vouros, who counter-proposed unsuccessfully that fellow Democrat Rebekah Harriman-Stites serve with Cruson as co-chair.
The board’s decision to name Cruson chair and Kuzman cochair of the superintendent search committee followed a short presentation by Zukowski about the process to find a replacement for Rodrigue, who has been Newtown’s top educator since 2018.
In short, the process will happen behind closed doors.
“It is of paramount importance that all facets of the search be held fully confidential,” Zukowski said. “There should be no discussion about the state of the process, deliberations or discussions of the committee or decisions with people outside of the committee other than the third-party consultant.”
The first step is for Cruson, Kuzman and the search committee to choose a consultant that “gathers input as directed by the committee and prepares a job description which the committee reviews, modifies, if needed, and approves.”
Next, the search committee will review responses to a formal request for candidates.
“I think everyone recognizes the most important decision any board of education can make is the hiring of a superintendent,” Ramsey said. “We have such a wonderful superintendent now who will be very difficult to replace.”