In the end it was all about change for the sake of change
By Josh Resnek
Last Thursday night, the Superintendent Choice Committee decided to take a chance with new leadership and younger leadership for its choice of school superintendent.
The consensus seemed to be that nearly everyone having a say in this process sought the kind of superintendent who had no ties to the city or its school administration or its politics or society.
There were some loud cries of unfair from those longtime employees who had applied for the position but were not granted interviews.
In the end, all those not interviewed graciously accepted the choice of Priya Tahiliani as the next superintendent.
Teachers by and large are believed to have latched on to her candidacy from the very start, according to school administration insiders.
“She was the choice right from the git go,” said an administrator.
In the end, it was all about change for the sake of change without much concern about how long the new superintendent would last before she left for another job or what her reception would be like in a city known for its closeness.
A widely held belief that the choice committee should have chosen a superintendent that was from here or already working here so as to cut down the learning curve that follows an appointment such as this one was totally rejected.
“It was far more important for the choice committee to choose an outsider,” said a member of the committee.
“The committee did not feel it was taking such a big chance by gaining the insight, the ambition and the intelligence of an outsider who had been a school teacher. Above all, the choice committee desired someone who had taught in a classroom and understood the difficulties and complexities of modern teaching in a system like Everett’s,” said the committee member.
Tahiliani has written several plays and regards herself as a writer and teacher, according to her curriculum vitae.
She is a younger with a contagious type of energy and professional demeanor in her appearance that will apparently serve Everett’s public school system quite well with insiders as well as outsiders.
“Time will tell,” said a local teacher with many years experience in the school system.
“We welcome her and we wait to see what she does. It should be different and quite possibly, exciting,” said the teacher.