Decisions About Search For New K-6 Superintendent May Have To Be Made Relatively Soon

Shortly after hiring a new interim superin­tendent, Norfolk elementary school officials are already thinking about replacing her.

Or perhaps not replacing her.

Superintendent Claire Jackson, who official­ly took over the school district July 1, told the School Committee this past Wednesday night that members ought to start preparing for a su­perintendent search.

Ordinarily, the first decision the School Com­mittee would have to make is whether to hire a consultant to guide the search. But even before that, committee members might need to decide whether they want to pur­sue a proposal to share a superintendent with the King Philip regional school district that serves grades 7 through 12 in Norfolk, Wrentham, and Plainville.

Norfolk officials shelved the sharing-with-King Philip idea earlier this year to allow more time for study. But while no committee members have committed themselves to pursuing that course, at least some seem interested in the idea.

A third option is to extend Jackson’s one-year contract for a second year, provided that she wants to stay, that the School Committee wants to keep her, and that the state education depart­ment

grants a waiver allowing her to earn a full salary while also collecting her pension as a re­tired school administrator.

Linda Andrews, who is a member of the Nor­folk School Committee and also the committee’s appointed member of the King Philip School Committee, said the King Philip committee’s re­cent

search for a new superintendent appeared rushed even though it got under way in earnest in January. So Norfolk school officials might want to make decisions about a superintendent search earlier in the upcoming school year.

School Committee member Ross Gilleland, speaking later in the meeting during a different discussion, said the public schools that serve Norfolk suffer from the divided jurisdictions, because the whole town doesn’t identify with the public schools at all levels. “One of the problems with being a split district is there’s no consistent, unified, K-through-12 perspective of ‘these are our schools’,” Gilleland said.