#parent | #kids | COVID-19 outbreak slows superintendent search process in Concord | #teacher | #children | #kids


The Concord School District will likely not see a permanent superintendent start work until late summer at the earliest. 

Concord School Board officials planned to make the names of finalists for the next superintendent of schools position public early this month. However, due to COVID-19, school board members are now predicting the process will be delayed and that the start date of the new hire, set for July 1, will get pushed back.

The complicated task of scheduling virtual interviews and coordinating opportunities for community feedback in a time of social distancing has slowed the process, said Arthur Bettencourt, Executive Director of NESDEC, the consulting firm leading the district in its search. 

Many applicants are hesitant to come forward because they feel a responsibility to the school districts they are working in help navigate the crisis. 

“Some have expressed to me some discomfort with having their names become public at a time when, really, their districts are in, I don’t want to call it a crisis, but certainly a situation of uncertainty,” Bettencourt said at the board’s Monday night virtual meeting. 

“They really feel a responsibility to their present districts,” he added. “I think I can speak with some confidence when I say, if these names are released too soon, you’re going to lose candidates.”

Concord School District’s interim superintendent, Frank Bass, is due for his contract with the district to expire at the end of June. He said earlier this week that he hadn’t yet been approached by school board members about his contract being extended. He said he’s tried to keep removed from the hiring process. 

“I’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said. 

School board member Tom Croteau, who sits on the superintendent screening committee, said Thursday he would be reaching out to Bass to ask him how he felt about the possibility of extending his contract, if that becomes necessary. 

“Very honestly, I’m going to have that conversation with Frank today….to find out exactly what his feelings are about whether he could bridge a gap again for us, or if his plans are tight enough so that he cannot, maybe he doesn’t want to,” Croteau said. “We’ve very, very, very much appreciated everything he’s done for us, and so we don’t want to push him into a corner.” 

School districts have relied heavily on leadership staff to transition to remote learning, which will continue until at least May 4. Bass has been key in that process for Concord. He has been in charge of providing regular updates to families and coordinating teaching efforts among Concord’s seven schools. He is even teaching his own remote learning course on the writing of James Joyce and Nathaniel Hawthorne with half a dozen Concord High upperclassmen. 

Bass, a career educator from Manchester, has led the district as interim superintendent since former Concord Superintendent Terri Forsten’s departure in early November. Concord School District’s leadership has been in flux in recent months following the arrest of a well-known teacher for sexual assault last April.

After special education teacher Howie Leung was arrested, students came forward saying they shared concerns about Leung to administration – one saying she shared concerns years before his arrest – and not enough was done to protect the school community.

The Concord School Board hired an independent attorney to investigate administrators’ handling of reports concerning Leung. After the school board received the report, it voted to terminate the contracts of both Forsten and Concord High School principal Tom Sica.

Shortly after, Bass was appointed to interim superintendent and Michael Reardon, retired headmaster of Pembroke Academy, was appointed as interim Concord High principal.

Reardon was nominated on Monday to serve as Concord High School’s permanent principal during the virtual school board meeting.

Meanwhile, the superintendent search is still underway. 

The official process started in early February when community members were invited to fill out online surveys and participate in focus group sessions outlining qualities they are looking for in the district’s next superintendent. 

That feedback was compiled by NESDEC officials and used to create a “candidate profile” that a screening committee made up of community members used to select and interview an initial round of candidates. A smaller group of finalists has been selected, although committee members said they could not share how many due to confidentiality. 

“It’s kind of like spinning plates on a stick, really. We want to get them as quickly as they can, but they need some time to do what they need to do,” Croteau said, of the candidates. “The process is moving forward, it’s just taking smaller steps out of necessity because of the situation we find ourselves in with COVID-19.”

School Board President Jennifer Patterson said the board would engage in conversations with finalists in the coming weeks to learn more about their needs as the search process continues. She promised that there would be an opportunity for public participation and input.

“This is certainly an extraordinary situation, I think we’ll all have to be a little more flexible and creative than we even thought we would be,” Patterson said. 

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