BOE to Pick RIS Assistant Principal, Possibly Guidance Director Thursday

The Board of Education has called a special session for Thursday evening to approve administrative appointments in the district.

Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan said the BOE will be meeting to confirm an appointment to the position of assistant principal of Roosevelt Intermediate School, along with likely confirming an appointment to the district wide director of guidance position. The meeting is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. at BOE headquarters on Elm Street with an executive session, which Dolan expects to end at 9 p.m., when the public session will kick off.

Dolan said the Roosevelt job has been filled and she is hoping that the guidance job will be filled by Thursday. She said she has been in interviews with finalists for the last week. Patch has learned the finalists for the guidance job are from outside of the district. Dolan declined to name the names of the finalists for the two posts.

The Roosevelt assistant principal job has been vacant since the end of June when Matt Bolton was named the new principal of McKinley School. The guidance post has been vacant since February, when Colleen White suddenly resigned after six months in office, under circumstances which have not been explained. White was the third guidance director Westfield has had in three years.

The school system originally abolished the guidance director post in budget cuts earlier this year. The position was reestablished last month after BOE Vice President Ann Cary and BOE member Mitch Slater urged their colleagues to restore the position, citing its importance. Cary served as a member of the search committee. Slater had made guidance issues a key part of his campaign platform this spring.

Dolan said that while she is holding interviews to fill the language arts supervisor post, it is likely an appointment will not be made on Thursday. The language arts job became vacant after Heather Rocco announced plans to leave Westfield for a similar position with the Chatham Board of Education.