WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School District is officially in the market for a superintendent.

 

This week, the district's advertisement for a permanent superintendent was posted on the website of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, which, along with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, is one of the main vehicles for getting the word out.

 

A three-member working group of the Transition Committee that governs the three-school regional district met twice last week for a total of about four hours to iron out the details of a two-page brochure that describes the district and lays out the qualities it seeks in a superintendent.

 

Applications for the post will be accepted until 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 1, and the district hopes to make an appointment by early April, according to the ad. Salary will be commensurate with experience.

 

In recognition of a 7-0 vote of the committee, the brochure notes that the district expects to have a strong internal candidate for the post. Three members of the Transition Committee voted against having a formal search process and, instead, offering the post to the interim superintendent, but the majority felt that it was important to conduct a search in order to make the best choice for the district going forward.

 

The first paragraph of the brochure, which describes the two-town district, concludes: "The schools are currently led by an Interim Superintendent, who is expected to be a strong internal candidate. The search committee is committed to a fair and open process in which all candidates are fully considered."

 

The search committee labored over every line of the brochure with an eye toward making sure it incorporates messaging from past searches and identifies specific skills that the district needs.

 

"As I was talking to [the MASC's] Dorothy Presser, I remarked how a lot of these postings seem to have platitudes," said Transition Committee Chairman Joe Bergeron, who served with committee member Carolyn Greene and Search Committee member Steven Miller on the group that composed the ad.

 

"We know ourselves well after all we've been through and can give a superintendent a real sense of what's expected."

 

High on Bergeron's list of criteria that made it into the final document were an ability to "manage the intricacies of regional school district structure and finance" and "bring a current building project to successful completion and begin the accelerated repair process for two more."

 

In addition to the ongoing addition/renovation project at the middle-high school, Mount Greylock's two elementary schools in Williamstown and Lanesborough each are about 10 years old and at or near eligibility for the Massachusetts School Building Authority's Accelerated Repair program, a funding stream meant to keep older school buildings in good shape.

 

The Transition Committee plans to finalize the roster of its seven-person Search Committee at its Thursday meeting. The Search Committee will be tasked with screening applications and delivering up to three finalists to the Transition Committee for final interviews and selection.