By Josh Resnek
Although the superintendent search committee has been sworn to secrecy about its selection process, bits and pieces of information about the process have made their way out of the committee room about where the search is leading.
Little is known about exactly how many applicants have applied and where they are from.
However, this much has come into the public domain through the comments of a number of people familiar with the search, all of whom wished to remain unnamed.
Local administrators need not apply is one of the net results of decisions made last Wednesday by the search committee according to those who claim to know.
Three local, longtime administrators are believed to have submitted applications.
They have allegedly been informed they will not be interviewed, according to sources.
“Local candidates are not being considered even for interviews,” said a source.
The same source told the Leader Herald that interviews are apparently now being arranged for a number of candidates, although that number remains unknown.
A number of school department administrators, principals mainly among them, are believed to have preferred a new fulltime superintendent hired from within.
But School Committee Chair and head of the search committee Attorney Tom Abruzzesse is apparently sticking to his guns about choosing “someone from the outside.”
Abruzzesse said months ago when the search committee was first being formed that he wanted a “worldwide” search if necessary to find a new leader for the Everett public schools.
Excluding local candidates does not appear consistent with the state’s employment laws, which require that all applicants be judged on their merits and not necessarily by where they reside or where they come from, or whether or not they already worked for the Everett public schools.
Hiring is supposed to be done on merit.
In the coming weeks, the search committee will present the finalists they have chosen for public scrutiny.
Right now, the process remains private due to the necessity to shield those from the outside who have applied so as not to disrupt their job situations where they are presently employed.
To this end, everyone on the search committee has apparently signed a non-disclosure form about naming applicants at the risk of the school department being sued.
Who is being considered right now is a big unknown not shared with sources.
One thing is for certain, an outsider will be the next full time superintendent.