By Josh Resnek
Now that Priya Tahiliani has been chosen to be the first superintendent of the Everett Public Schools during the past 30 years, a wide variety of educational and political questions about what form and shape her leadership will take are brewing.
Tahiliani is to this date playing her cards pretty straight.
She has not revealed to anyone within the present school system exactly what she will seek to do in implementing her administration of the schools.
This leaves many of the key players in the system, including those who were not interviewed for the superintendent’s position, wondering what the future may hold for them – as well as for the system.
Acting Superintendent Janet Gauthier will, in all likelihood, be retiring when her term ends, which is expected to be the exact day Tahiliani’s term begins.
When that will be is a guess but most indicators point to a March or April date when her contract has been negotiated and decided and she has expressed a desire to take over.
Will she want to keep the two assistant superintendents?
Will they want to work with her?
Yes is the likely answer to both questions but only through early decisions she makes will we know where the new superintendent is headed, what direction she will be taking.
Will she keep all her principals and assistant principals?
Will she embark on a school wide meet and greet to assess leadership possibilities, and changes in leadership?
The most compelling question to those in the system is this: how much of a change does she want to institute on the school system and who will remain and who will have to go?
Her past record with the Boston Public Schools indicates she is a workhorse when it comes to performing.
She met with thousands of parents.
She performed some wondrous work with teaching kids English as a second language and achieving better reading scores.
Her classroom work, it is believed, will serve her well in Everett. Until she takes over, it is inevitable that the rank and file of the Everett Public Schools will all wonder a bit where they are headed.
Right now, only Ms. Tahiliani knows this – and she isn’t saying.