Superintendent candidates in demand as search narrows
Jan. 29, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11:15 a.m.
A veteran superintendent from Pennsylvania, a top administrator in one of Vermont’s largest school districts, and the 2021 Vermont Superintendent of the Year.
That describes the pool of three finalist candidates in the search for the next superintendent for the Harwood Unified Union School District when Superintendent Brigid Nease steps down in June.
As it turns out, the two Vermont contenders are also the two finalists up for consideration next week in the Washington Central Unified Union School District as a variety of school districts around Vermont compete for new top administrators.
Harwood School Board Chair Torrey Smith shared the short list at this week’s board meeting during which the board walked through the series of steps involving the finalists that will unfold next week.
That was one of two important discussions the board held on Wednesday as it unanimously approved the $42.6 million fiscal year 2023 budget to put to voters on Town Meeting Day, and signed off on all of the details regarding the March 1 election.
The superintendent finalists
From 13 applications submitted between late November and Jan.3, the Harwood preliminary search committee narrowed the candidate pool to seven earlier this month. Each applicant was asked to submit additional information in a video. The search committee then conducted a first round of interviews and trimmed the list to three finalists:
Mike Leichliter, Superintendent of the Penn Manor School District in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Zach McLaughlin, Superintendent of the Springfield (Vt.) School District
Meagan Roy, Director of Student Support Services in Chittenden County’s Champlain Valley School District
Mike Leichliter, Penn Manor School District video screenshot
Leichliter in October announced that he intended to retire from the Penn Manor district no later than Aug. 31, 2022. He has been superintendent there since 2009 and previously served as a high school assistant principal, a middle school principal, and the district’s assistant superintendent, according to the school district’s website.
The Penn Manor district is in southeast Pennsylvania, about 70 miles west of Philadelphia. It has seven elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school, and its 2020 enrollment was just under 5,500 students.
Zach McLaughlin, Springfield School District video screenshot
The Springfield School District where McLaughlin has been superintendent since 2013 is much smaller with two elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and approximately 1,100 pupils in 2020, according to that district’s website.
In June 2021 McLaughlin received recognition from peers when he was named Vermont's Superintendent of the Year by the Vermont Superintendents Association. That announcement noted that he has worked in the Springfield School District since July 2010 when he started as an assistant principal at Springfield High School. Since then he has held multiple roles including director of curriculum, and assistant superintendent.
Meagan Roy’s background is in special education where she has been an administrator for years. Her role heading Student Support Services in the Champlain Valley School District involves managing the complex system of state and federal programs and services that provide safety nets for students with a myriad of special needs to ensure that they are successful in learning.
Meagan Roy, Champlain Valley School District photo
Roy also was honored by the Vermont Superintendents Association and the Vermont Council of Special Education Administrators. In 2015, the groups named her Vermont State Special Education Director of the Year, a distinction to those who demonstrate exemplary effort on behalf of children with special needs. At the time she was the special education administrator for Chittenden South Supervisory Union which several years later consolidated into the Champlain Valley district. Covering Williston, Shelburne, Hinesburg, Charlotte and St. George, the district has just under 3,900 students.
The three have applied to take over when Nease steps down at the end of June, 13 years after she joined the district. By comparison, the Harwood district’s enrollment this year is just under 1,800 students. And in addition to filling the superintendent’s position, the district’s Finance and Operations Manager Michelle Baker has announced her plans to resign at the end of this school year. The school board also has decided to create a human resources director position starting in the 2023 budget year, so that will add another new member to the district’s administrative team.
Tours, interviews on tap next week
At its regular meeting on Wednesday, the school board discussed the schedule for next week with the superintendent finalist visits to the district scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. The visits will include tours to see the schools and central offices, meet principals and some students.
There are individual interviews planned for executive sessions with the full school board -- two on Monday and one on Tuesday -- at meetings scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. both days.
In addition, short video-recorded interviews will be done and shared online for the public to view and offer feedback before the board makes a choice. The videos are scheduled to be posted online starting Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Smith said there also will be a short survey form that viewers can use to offer their thoughts on the candidates. Although the video clips will remain online, the feedback forms will be closed at midnight on Feb. 2. A link to the videos is on the superintendent search section of the HUUSD.org website.
The forms will be live for just a short time because the school board will meet again on Thursday at 6 p.m. to discuss the interviews earlier in the week and potentially choose one of the finalists to present with a job offer. Discussions will be in executive session although any action or decisions the board makes would be done in public. The board has its regular meeting on Feb. 9 listed as the date it may appoint the new superintendent.
It’s a job-seeker’s market
In an email to Waterbury Roundabout today, Jeff Francis, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, said that as of now, there will be 12 "transitions" in superintendent positions in Vermont as of June 30, 2022. “There are seven districts or supervisory unions with superintendents who will be leaving/or who have left effective June 30,” he said, noting that Nease falls into that category along with Jeanne Collins in Rutland Northeast.
There are currently five interim superintendents serving school districts/supervisory unions in Vermont, Francis continued. “In two of those districts, the interim superintendent has been hired to start in the permanent position as of July 1, 2022.” In another instance, the interim is the choice for the permanent position and details are being worked out. And in two of the school districts -- including Washington Central -- search processes are underway, he said.
An example came just last week when the Barre Unified Union School Board named interim Superintendent Chris Hennessey to the position he’s been filling for over six months at the behest of a search committee that recommended no other finalists.
Francis said there were fewer transitions in 2021 but 2020 saw about a dozen as well.
Asked about the competing job interviews for two of the three finalists for the Harwood job, board Chair Smith said she knew Roy and McLaughlin were applying elsewhere. “I did not know until earlier that WCUUSD was having an event on the 2nd as well. But it does make some sense, as everyone is trying to get out ahead and snag the strong candidates before they go elsewhere,” she said.
More interviews on Groundhog Day
McLaughlin and Roy are the only candidates on the superintendent finalist list for the Washington Central district that serves the nearby Central Vermont communities of Berlin, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex and Worcester including U-32 High School. Their interviews for that position are scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 2.
Just as the 2021-22 school year began in late August, that district’s school board and former superintendent Bryan Olkowski signed off on a separation agreement that included his resignation effective Sept. 1, just one year into a two-year contract. The departure followed a May no-confidence vote in Olkowski by district staff.
The Washington Central school board in turn temporarily promoted Jennifer Miller-Arsenault from curriculum director to acting superintendent, a position she currently holds. The search process there has been on a parallel track with Harwood’s in recent weeks. The district’s website home page has a notice of a public forum scheduled to be held via Zoom from 3:45 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday featuring McLaughlin and Roy.
A letter posted from Washington Central School Board Chair Flor Diaz Smith describes a process similar to that taken in the Harwood district to arrive at the finalist stage: “Students, employees, citizens and board members worked with a search consultant in considering the applicants.”
As the two Washington Central candidates, McLaughlin and Roy are scheduled to tour schools in that district, interview with the school board in executive session, and participate in the public forum via Zoom, the memo outlines.
And just as with the Harwood position, the start date for the new Washington Central superintendent to start work would be July 1. At that time, Miller-Arsenault would resume her role as director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, Diaz Smith writes.
Meanwhile in Springfield, McLaughlin’s contract ends June 30 and the search for his replacement appears to be following a similar path as with Harwood and Washington Central.
In January 2021, the Springfield School Board made a controversial decision not to renew McLaughlin’s contract, which would have meant his contract was to end June 30, 2021.
The move sparked a huge outcry from educators in the district and the public, attracting more than 100 people to public meetings held via video conference. Developments are documented in school board meeting minutes that describe how the school board quickly shifted course, asking McLaughlin to stay on given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and time needed to conduct a search for a replacement. He agreed to a one-year contract that ends this June. A few months later, the superintendents association of which he is a trustee awarded him the Superintendent of the Year honor.
According to the Springfield district’s website, superintendent candidate interviews are ongoing and will continue on Monday.
Details about the HUUSD superintendent search are on the district website under the Superintendent Search tab.