Somerville School Committee Reopens Superintendent Search

SOMERVILLE, MA —The Somerville School Committee announced last week that it has reopened the application process for the new superintendent of Somerville Public Schools (SPS) after the committee chose not to select a candidate during recent deliberations.

The application window will remain open until March 9. Applicants who were part of the previous search process have the option to re-apply, the committee said.

The School Committee also announced that it will retain the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) to help lead the search process.

A few weeks ago, the School Committee had expressed hope that a new superintendent would be in place by March, if not sooner. That timeline has been changed to July in what the committee has referred to as an "expedited search process."

The search process hit a snag on Feb. 13 when Pittsfield Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa, reportedly the favored candidate among the three finalists, removed her name from the candidate pool for personal reasons.

The School Committee declined to offer the position to either of the two remaining candidates, Jannell D. Pearson-Campbell, interim superintendent of Northampton Public Schools, and Kevin McCaskill, assistant superintendent of secondary schools for Boston Public Schools.

Andre Green, chair of the School Committee, explained the committee's decision to reopen the search process.

"We had some very qualified candidates. However, we are committed to finding a candidate who has the right qualifications and skills and who meets the needs of our district as a whole," Green said.

Green continued: "This School Committee is committed to doing the necessary hard work to find the best possible candidate for the Somerville Public Schools. In this case, we have determined that this means reopening the search process while continuing to use the candidate profile we built based on the feedback from more than 450 SPS stakeholders. We will continue to invite public participation and feedback throughout this process."

In fact, the School Committee already has announced that it is seeking volunteers to serve on a new Screening and Interview Team for the superintendent search.

The team will be made up of representatives from the School Committee, SPS central administration, school administrators, educators and community members.

The Screening and Interview Team will be tasked with reviewing applicant resumes, conducting the first round of interviews and submitting a small pool of finalists to the full School Committee.

People interested in serving on the Screening and Interview Team are asked to fill out an Interest Form online by March 1. Citizens who previously served on the Screening and Interview Team are welcome to serve again.

The members of the new team will be announced on March 6.

The search for a new SPS superintendent began in the summer of 2022 after former Superintendent Mary Skipper was chosen as the superintendent of Boston Public Schools.

On Jan. 30, the School Committee announced that it had narrowed the pool of 27 applicants down to three finalists.

Each of the three finalists participated in an in-person meeting with the community and a public school committee interview during the week of Feb. 6.