Last modified: 2/25/2016 9:47:30 AM
DEERFIELD — An interim assistant superintendent from New Hampshire and the regional director of an educational organization based in Massachusetts have been named as the finalists for the Frontier Regional School superintendent job.
Lynn M. Carey, interim assistant superintendent of the Monadnock Regional School District in Swanzey, N.H., and Kathryn Thayer Clark, regional director of Springboard Education in Lexington, have made the cut.
Carey holds a doctorate in education from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minn. Before taking the interim superintendent job in 2013, she was principal of the Fall Mountain Regional School District in New Hampshire.
Clark holds a master’s degree in education from Boston College. Before coming to Springboard in 2015, she was an elementary school principal in the Danvers public schools.
Both candidates hold Massachusetts superintendents licenses.
Pat Correira, a field director with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, is acting as a consultant for the Frontier Superintendent Search Committee and said the Frontier Regional and Union #38 school committees will send representatives to the candidates’ current workplaces for site visits this week. Representatives will visit Carey’s school district on Thursday and Clark’s employer in Lexington on Friday.
Carey and Clark were selected from eight semifinalists reviewed by members of the school committees.
At Tuesday’s joint meeting of the Frontier Regional and Union #38 school committees, Frontier Regional School Committee member Bob Decker said he was expecting three to five superintendent finalists and was surprised to receive only two. He said he is leery about continuing with two candidates because he does not want a potential withdrawal by one candidate to mean the other is automatically handed the job.
Correira acknowledged it would be unethical to do that, though the remaining candidate would be granted a final interview as a professional courtesy and so the school committees could decide if she was the right person for the position. If the school committees opt not to hire the metaphorical remaining candidate, the job will be re-advertised.
Correira, who does not get a vote on the 11-member search committee, said Superintendent Martha Barrett’s final day will be June 30, the end of the fiscal year. She told The Recorder she hopes to have an incoming superintendent named on Feb. 24, when finalist interviews will be conducted.
You can reach Domenic Poli at:
dpoli@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 257.