Beverly Superintendent Finalist Field Down To 2, Interviews Begin

BEVERLY, MA — The finalist field to become the next superintendent of Beverly Public Schools was reduced to two on Monday when School Committee Chair Rachael Abell said Newburyport Superintendent Sean Gallagher withdrew his name from consideration.

That leaves Medford Assistant Superintendent Peter Cushing and Melrose Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Turner as the remaining finalists, with Turner conducting her public interview on Monday night.

"We have canceled Mr. Gallagher's meet-and-greet events, which were scheduled for Wednesday," Abell said. "The rest of the search process will continue as scheduled, and we look forward to speaking with Dr. Cushing and Dr. Turner."

Abell said feedback on the two candidates will be considered through Thursday morning with a meeting Thursday night to discuss and likely vote on a selected candidate.

Turner has been the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning in Melrose since 2022 after serving as the principal at the Diamond Middle School in Lexington from 2016 to 2022, and assistant principal of the Clark Middle School in Lexington from 2010 to 2016.

She stressed the importance of student voice, pressing forward on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the face of shifting national priorities, and the healing process from the November teachers' strikes and the divisions caused during negotiations.

"I am a person who really believes that for these kinds of leadership roles, the core values of the person interviewing for the role need to match the core values of the district," Turner said Monday night. "The work and the experience that the candidate has done needs to be a match for the work that the district is doing. ...

"Beverly is in a position where we need to do some healing, and we need to do some building of trust again. We need to rebuild relationships, and I feel that is an area of experience that I believe I can bring to this role."

Turner talked about the importance of communication and public relations when it comes to budget pushes and how it was key to involve the entire city about the implications of making certain investments or cuts in its public schools.

"Melrose, and I think Beverly is in a similar situation, is where probably about 90 percent of our budget is staff," she said. "So when we have to make cuts, that's where the cuts come from. It is extremely hard and extremely painful. Our conversations at the leadership table (in Melrose) this year have been about what is absolutely essential for students to be safe, what is absolutely essential for students to be able to access the curriculum in a way that is going to continue to move academic performance forward."

She said she will not abandon D.E.I. initiatives despite a changing landscape of embracing them nationwide and shared a story about how she engaged a parent who said he only wanted his son to read books about "traditional" families, ultimately explaining that her district supports being inclusive of students from all races, identities, backgrounds and family structures.

"We have a moral imperative to do this work because it is what is best for students, for families and for our community," she said. "We cannot possibly say that we believe in an inclusive, safe environment if we are not willing to stand firm and do this work. It is not a safe environment if students cannot be themselves. It is not a safe environment if students feel that they can't identify as who they truly are because they fear retribution, or bullying, or harm.

"When we talk about things like D.E.I., it's not an add-on. It's not an initiative. I really have to question when I hear the narrative coming from outside noise around whether we are going to be eliminating D.E.I. initiatives. I always have to stop and say that I don't even know what that would look like because, to me, that is just the work that we do on a regular basis.

"That is who we have to be as a community."

Cushing is scheduled for an in-district visit on Tuesday, with a public School Committee interview to follow on Tuesday night.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)