Mary Ann DeMello Named Acting Superintendent

In an ongoing conversation that has unfolded over the past few weeks, the School Committee looked at the options for .

The first order of business was for  Director of Human Resources Kim Pulnik to outline the limited options the town has in going forward with the process. Pulnik said that the main focus should be hiring an interim-superintendent.

Before that could take place however, the School Committee needed to appoint someone as the acting Superintendent. For that decision the board voted unanimously to appoint .

The current plan is for DeMello to serve in the position from July 1 to July 31, at which point an interim leader would have been selected to begin August 1.

According to Pulnik the position will be posted for three weeks, beginning today. Candidates will be screened throughout the process so that the School Committee will have a pool of candidates to interview beginning in July.

The interim-superintendent will work through June 30, 2013 at which point the School Committee hopes to have picked a full time candidate to begin July 1 of next year.

Pulnik said oftentimes interim-superintendents are retired superintendents, however because they are collecting state pensions they are very limited in the amount of hours that they can work. Pulnik said there is an option for the system to apply for a "Critical Shortage Waiver."

“There is a critical shortage of Superintendent candidates out there and the Department of Ed has informed us that this is going to be a difficult process,” Pulnik said.