Claudia Bach On Her Goals As Andover's Interim Superintendent

ANDOVER, MA — Claudia Bach did not want to return to Andover Public Schools.

When Sheldon Berman announced he would be stepping down as superintendent, Bach, a former superintendent who lives in the district, started getting calls asking her to run for the interim role.

"Becoming the next superintendent, even the interim one, was not what I was thinking about," Bach said.

She said no. When she had stepped down as superintendent in 2010, she decided not to have her name added to a statewide pool of interim superintendent candidates. She was busy with other things. And obviously, it's not an easy year to step in as superintendent. But eventually, following calls from both former colleagues in the district and the Massachusetts School Committees Association, she said okay.

"I finally said okay," Bach said. "It's only six months."

The school committee went on to offer Bach a contract just weeks ahead of Berman's departure, and she joined the district to begin the new year. She's expected to serve for about half a year, while a permanent superintendent is found.

"Having been here for a week, I'm really happy I made the decision," Bach said Friday.

In the years since Bach finished her 12-year term as superintendent, Bach has remained involved in town affairs, serving on town committees and volunteer workshops with the School Committee. She spent several years with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Pike School since 2010.

In some ways, that has made the transition "remarkably easy," Bach said. Many of the systems and people in the district were there when she left a decade ago, and some of the projects underway, like the West Elementary-Shawsheen School building project, are similar to those she undertook as superintendent. She even had some familiarity with coronavirus adaptations, as a member of the Pike School's coronavirus task force.

"But the district has moved on and is doing new work," Bach said.

Bach praised the way the district, and others across the commonwealth, rapidly made the switch to remote learning in the spring and then came back with experience and new structures in the fall.

Getting students back in school full time, or at least having a clear timeline and plan for doing so if the virus gets worse, is one of the interim superintendent's priorities, she said.

"There's unified agreement that [in-person learning] is where we want to go," she said. "We may finally be able to end the surge if we all participate in the covid protocols. It is a community, and we can do this faster and better if we do this together."

Her other goals include advancing the school building project to town meeting, having a budget with support from the School Committee, Finance Committee and Tri-Board and settling contracts for the coming year.

"I want to help in any way I can with the search for the new superintendent," Bach said. "I'll leave, happily so, in six months. In the meantime, I want to prepare us in moving forward in various projects so people coming in to be superintendent will see a district moving forward.

"We are a strong district with a strong reputation. I'm eager to have potential applicants say, wouldn't it be great if I could work in Andover, which is exactly how I felt in 1998."

Asked about labor relations, Bach said she did not want to "second guess all the hard work that people have put in" but that her background is in labor relations and she has experience with challenging negotiations in three different districts.

"I don't know what I can do in six months, but what I've worked very hard to do is to establish a positive relationship with the teachers union," she said.

She also wants to focus on positive relationships with students and parents, she said.

"It's all about relationships, this work," Bach said. "Forming the most productive, inclusive relationships — that's what I've focused on from the beginning.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.