By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The search for Lynnfield High School’s next principal is underway.
LHS Principal Bob Cleary announced in September that he will be retiring at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year. He served as the high school’s assistant principal from 2002 through 2008, and has been LHS’ principal since 2008.
Superintendent Kristen Vogel said during the School Committee’s Dec. 13 meeting that the high school’s faculty and staff was sent a survey about the next principal on Sunday, Dec. 4.
“We also sent out a request to faculty and staff asking for volunteers to serve on the interview committee,” said Vogel.
Vogel said a survey was sent to families on Monday, Dec. 12.
“We sent it to all parents in the community,” said Vogel. “We know that elementary parents might not fill out the survey, but there are middle school parents whose children will be heading to the high school in the next year, two or three years. We thought they may want to provide some feedback, so that is why we opened it up to all families.”
Vogel said a separate survey was sent to students on Thursday, Dec. 15. She met with the students who serve on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council on Dec. 14 to get their “feedback and ideas” about the next LHS principal.
The LHS principal job was posted both internally and on the SchoolSpring job search website on Monday, Dec. 12. Vogel said the position will be posted until Friday, Jan. 13.
“We are keeping the job posted for a month,” said Vogel. “We talked initially about posting the job after the holiday break, but we decided to post it before to give candidates time over the December vacation to get materials and recommendations together. That is why we decided to keep the job posted until the middle of January. Hopefully we can attract a wide and deep pool of applicants for the job.”
According to the job description, the next LHS principal is required to have prior teaching experience at the high school level. The School Department is also looking for the next leader of LHS to have a “master’s of education degree or higher from an accredited college or university.” The district is also looking for the next LHS principal to have “at least five years of successful school leadership and administrative experience,” and have the ability to “identify, select, motivate and evaluate high-quality staff.”
School Committee Chair Rich Sjoberg was pleased that the LHS principal job will be posted for a month.
“The depth of the job description perfectly aligns us for the future evolution of everything we have tried to accomplish as we move forward with a new principal,” said Sjoberg.
Vogel said Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Kevin Cyr will be leading the interview committee, which be finalized on Jan. 13.
“We will have two students sitting on the interview committee as well as parents, faculty and staff,” said Vogel. “Kevin will be the only member of the Administrative Leadership Team (ALT) serving on the interview committee.”
School Committee Vice Chair Stacy Dahlstedt was pleased that students, families, faculty and staff will be participating in the search for LHS’ next principal.
“I am happy that we are being so inclusive,” said Dahlstedt.
Vogel said the interview committee will be screening applicants from Jan. 16 through Jan. 20. She said the first round of interviews will take place Feb. 1-8. She said the interview committee will recommend between three or four finalists for the ALT to interview in the second round of interviews on Feb. 13 and 14.
“The final interviews will be with me at the end of February,” said Vogel. “The goal is to announce the new principal in early March because we want to give an ample amount of time for the transition. We want Bob to work with the new person during the spring so they have time to meet with faculty and staff, spend time in the building, meet with department heads and meet with departments. We want the next principal to be familiar with the high school before they start on July 1.”
School Committee member Jamie Hayman inquired if a lot of high schools are searching for principals at this time.
Vogel said the only district she knows that is searching for a high school principal is Duxbury.
“That has actually been posted for awhile, so it’s not a new posting,” said Vogel.
Sjoberg said he hopes an “incredible applicant pool” will apply for the high school principal job.
“Hopefully it will be a very hard choice,” said Sjoberg.
“I suspect that it will be,” said Vogel in response.