HAMILTON-WENHAM — The schools have launched a new search for a superintendent — a process that is becoming quite familiar in Hamilton-Wenham.
The superintendent job was posted Friday with an application deadline of March 16.
Over the winter, a superintendent search committee had been evaluating Peter Gray, the district's interim superintendent, and decided last week not to recommend him for the job.
Gray, who was hired in 2010 as assistant superintendent, stepped into the role of interim superintendent after the abrupt departure of Raleigh Buchanan last spring. Buchanan, the former Haverhill superintendent, was hired by Hamilton-Wenham in a spring 2010 search to replace outgoing Superintendent Marinel McGrath.
The School Committee last week voted to begin a search for a new superintendent and allotted up to $3,500 for initial expenses, including advertising the job as soon as possible.
In doing so, the board has accepted the superintendent search committee's recommendation not to keep Gray — whose employment contract lasts through the 2012-2013 school year — in the role.
The advertisement seeks candidates with a superintendent's license and lists a start date of July 1. The committee did not discuss how to deal with the last year of Gray's contract.
"Candidates must have a verifiable track record in creating a vision for education," the ad states, "garnering support for that vision and leading the necessary stakeholders in the execution of operating plans to achieve that vision."
The Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District has a roughly $27 million operating budget and just over 2,000 students in three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school.
The School Committee briefly discussed the search at the end of a three-hour meeting on Thursday and agreed to flesh out the process in more detail at a future meeting. Gray and Assistant Superintendent Celeste Bowler left the meeting before the superintendent job was discussed.
School Committee Chairwoman Alexa McCloughan said she would step down from the superintendent search committee, but it seemed the remainder of the 12-member committee would stay the same for the new search.
The School Committee voted to appoint member Dacia Rubel to take McCloughan's place on the search committee and for Roger Kuebel to take over as chairman.
Several School Committee members mentioned the need to hire a consultant to conduct the search. Hamilton Selectman Jeff Stinson, a member of the superintendent search committee, suggested the firms used in the search for Buchanan and Gray not be used again.
Rubel handed out drafts of an advertisement for the job and search timeline, which proposed interviews with finalists in mid-April and the hiring of a new superintendent in the first week of May.
School Committee member Ann Minois remarked that it was "a very aggressive" timeline.
Rubel and McCloughan agreed that the district needs to act quickly to attract the most — and best — candidates.
"Time just ticks along, and you've got to hit the ground running," Rubel said. "... This is the biggest decision that this committee makes."
Staff writer Bethany Bray can be reached at bbray@salemnews.com and on Twitter @SalemNewsBB.
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