WATERVILLE — A dormant committee searching for a new superintendent for Waterville Public Schools will resume meeting next week to plan its strategy going forward.
Joan Phillips-Sandy, chairperson of the Waterville Board of Education and superintendent search committee, told the board Monday night the committee’s main task from now through December will be to develop an advertisement for wide distribution that’s meant to draw the largest number of qualified applicants possible. She said she would suggest applications be due in January or early February.
Joan Phillips-Sandy, chair of the Waterville school board. Morning Sentinel file
She will talk with committee members, Superintendent Eric Haley and the Maine School Management Association, which helped with a prior search, to determine what is needed on the part of the association for the next search.
Haley had planned to retire this year after 21 years on the job and 45 in education, but the board in the earlier search for a replacement was unable to find a suitable candidate and so Haley agreed in May to stay on until a new person is found.
Meanwhile, Peter Hallen, formerly the Mid-Maine Technical School director, was hired in July as assistant superintendent, a position that had been vacant.
Phillips-Sandy said Monday that three people on the 12-member search committee for various reasons decided not to continue as members. They are Don Roux, Deb Strout and Christina Lachance.
Phillips-Sandy announced earlier this year that she does not plan to seek reelection after 26 years on the board, and said come January a new chairperson may or may not want to replace the three vacancies on the committee.
“I’d like to give the new board chair some leeway in terms of choosing who they want,” she said.
Search committee members, besides Phillips-Sandy, are Jennifer Allen, coordinator of curriculum, titles (funding) and professional development for Waterville Public Schools; Luke Brooks-Shesler, the parent of two children in the school system and a member of Waterville Elementary Schools parent teacher organization; Ciara Hargrove, a teacher and choral director for Waterville Senior High School and Waterville Junior High School; Tabatha King, Waterville schools special education director; Cathy Lovendahl, a teacher at Albert S. Hall School; Paula Pooler, the schools’ finance director; and school board members Greg Bazakas and Patricia Helm.
In other matters Monday, Hallen reported on the relocation of the Waterville Alternative Education Program from the Children’s Home for Little Wanderers on Silver Street to Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. Opening day was Sept. 6, he said, and the college was welcoming and enthusiastic. About 35 students attend the program, he said.
Haley said that after a Winslow location for the alternative program fell through unexpectedly, he asked Hallen to drop everything to focus on finding a new spot. Hallen found a new site in two days, Haley said.
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