With School Leadership Shifting, Wayland Hiring Interim Administrators

WAYLAND, MA — With several top Wayland Public Schools leadership roles vacant or soon-to-be, the district is pursuing a plan to hire a slew of candidates for temporary roles.

Wayland has seen a handful of resignations and other job shakeups in the past few weeks including:

• Superintendent Omar Easy placed on indefinite leave by the school committee
• Assistant Superintendent Parry Graham — who is acting superintendent with Easy on leave — accepting a job to become Lincoln's new superintendent, with an expected departure of June 30
• Wayland Middle School principal Betsy Gavron taking a one-year sabbatical over the 2023-24 school year
• Happy Hollow principal Tricia O’Reilly resigning to take a job in another district
• Finance Director Tom Lafleur announced he would leave at the end of the 2022-23 school year

In a letter to parents this week, Graham said Wayland High School Principal Allyson Mizoguchi would lead the search for a new assistant superintendent. The district advertised the job last week as a one-year role with an application deadline of March 17. The district has also advertised for Gavron's job as a one-year position.

Barbara Cataldo, the district's special education director, is in the midst of a one-year contract. Cataldo and Lafleur's jobs will also be advertised as one-year positions, according to Graham's letter.

"Because we have a number of different positions open, and because I know I will not be in Wayland after June 30, I am very reluctant to make long-term leadership decisions for several of our central office positions. For that reason, several of these positions will be hired as interim, one-year positions," Graham said in the letter.

Graham also told the school committee on March 1 he didn't want to saddle the district with multiple searches for top jobs all at once. Having temporary candidates will allow the district to take the time to do proper searches, he said.

The district will hire a candidate to fill O'Reilly's job on a permanent basis. Gavron is leading the search for that position, and Graham said he hopes the district will have a final candidate before the April spring vacation.