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Tri-District Search Committee Advises Interim Superintendent
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
01:33AM / Thursday, October 23, 2014
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Regina DiLego updated the other members of the School Committee on the superintendent search process.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The school districts for Williamstown and Lanesborough won't have a permanent superintendent until at least July.
 
The superintendent search committee decided last week to recommend the district forgo its search for a replacement by Jan.1 for the retiring Rose Ellis.
 
The search committee was formed to sort applicants for recommendation after Ellis informed Mount Greylock Regional School District and Superintendency Union 71 she would retire at the end of the year.
 
"The pool was not as deep as we hoped," Regina DiLego, who serves on the search committee, told the Lanesborough School Committee on Wednesday. "In the interest of having the best possible candidate pool we can get, we are recommending to close it and reopen in the spring. Then look for an interim."
 
The committee hadn't received the type of applicants they had hoped and the general consensus was that asking for a Jan. 1 start date wasn't conducive to most candidates. Instead, the committee will now find an interim administrator and reopen the application process in hopes for the new superintendent to start on July 1.
 
"We need to have something in place by Jan. 1," DiLego said.
 
Superintendency Union 71, made up of the Lanesborough and Williamstown elementary school districts, will ultimately make the decision with how to proceed and DiLego expects a meeting to be called for that purpose soon. 
 
Lanesborough School Committee member Robert Barton said he wants the union to look at contracting a superintendent of another school to handle the administrative duties during the six months. 
 
"I have suggested that I would prefer that we not look for an interim without also talking to nearby school districts about sharing their superintendent," Barton said. "I would like to have this committee vote on our preference with how to move forward."
 
Jim Moriarty agreed that option should be looked at. However, DiLego said SU71 will likely decide how to proceed before the School Committee meets ago. But, being on SU71 as well, DiLego said she will convey their desires to the committee.
 
"I think it is worth looking at and seeing where we go with it," Moriarty said. "It may go somewhere. It may not."
 
In other news, Business Director Lynn Bassett reported that the elementary school's finances are running tight to the budget. The fiscal year has been compromised because two staff positions were approved by town meeting but not funded in the budget.
 
An unexpected $22,000 grant and efficiencies have accounted for that $80,000 or so deficit. But, the School Committee is now concerned with what the winter will cost in utilities. The school has about a $20,000 "cushion" in case of overruns.
 
"We're close to the wire," DiLego said.
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