Uxbridge schools to pick superintendent tonight

UXBRIDGE – The School Committee will decide tonight which of the three candidates looking to become the Uxbridge School District’s next superintendent will get the job.

The committee will deliberate at a special meeting to be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Uxbridge High School library.

The candidates for the $135,000 to 160,000 per year job are Kate Burnham, special education director for North Andover Public Schools; Nadine Ekstrom, interim senior director of elementary teaching and learning for Brookline Public Schools; and Frank Tiano, interim elementary principal and assistant superintendent for Framingham Public Schools.

The three candidates were interviewed Thursday and meet-and-greets with parents and students were held last week. The School Committee also made site visits to the candidates’ districts.

The three finalists were recommended by an 11-member Superintendent

Search Committee, which included Tom Donahue, parent representative; Leanne DeMarco, McCloskey Middle School principal; Lynne Gaskell, high school teacher; Cheryl Mazzarelli, parent representative; Heidi Happy, School Committee member; Debbie Stark, School Committee member; Hurly Silbor, high school teacher; Nancy Doyle, teacher; Pam Yukna, teacher and union president; Brian Hyde, school district business manager; and Holly Black, parent representative.

Assisting in the process was the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

The district is looking to replace School Superintendent Kevin Carney, who is leave Uxbridge before the start of the new school year next September. Last month

he was a finalist, but was passed over for the school chief’s job in Hopkinton.

Carney was one of three finalists for superintendent of the King Philip Regional School District in Wrentham. He was passed over in favor of Paul Zinni, superintendent in Avon.

Carney holds a Master of Arts in rehabilitation counseling with a concentration in school guidance from Assumption College, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in social and rehabilitation services, also from Assumption College.

He previously served as the director of education for the Doctor Franklin Perkins School in Lancaster, Mass; and middle school principal and assistant principal for Ashland Public Schools. He began his career as a middle school guidance counselor in Ashland.