Searches to Begin for Athletic Director, McKinley Principal

School district officials are scheduled to post job openings for a new athletic director and McKinley School principal by Monday.

The Board of Education was briefed Tuesday evening about the process to fill the two vacant administrative positions in the districts. Athletic Director Ed Tranchina and McKinley Principal Claudia Andreski have announced their retirements effective June 30.

Barbara Ball, the school system's human resources director, said she and other district administrators plan to review the job descriptions for the two posts by Friday in order to get the jobs posted by Monday. Describing the search process as aggressive, Ball said the hope is for the Board of Education to appoint new administrators at the June 29 meeting. The BOE is hoping to have both administrators on the job on July 1 to prevent any disruption following the two retirement dates.

"We will be doing both searches concurrently," she said.

The job vacancies will be posted in regional publications, along with education jobs websites and with universities with education departments and alumni job search programs.

Ball said she is presently forming search committees for both positions which will consist of BOE members, teachers, administrators and parents. The committees will begin interviewing candidates as soon as resumes are received by the district. The closing date for applicants will be May 25.

Ball said the committees will likely interview eight to 10 applicants in the first round, with three to four candidates making it to the second round. One to two of the applicants will be passed on to Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan who will make the final recommendation to the school board.

BOE member Richard Mattessich asked Ball if the district was looking for internal or external candidates to replace Andreski and Tranchina. Ball said the district is looking for the best possible candidates and said it is possible the candidates will emerge internally.

"Candidates from within the district would be welcome," she said.

Ball noted that the aggressive nature of the timeline will cause certain aspects of the search process to start as soon as they can. She said site visits to the current school districts of applicants will begin when finalists are determined after the second round of interviews and could occur as final interviews are being scheduled between Dolan and the finalists.

The site visits are arranged for Westfield officials to meet with administrators and teachers in the school district of an administrative applicant to discuss the applicant's work in that district.

Ball said she is confident the short time frame can yield a new principal and athletic director. She noted that she is prepared in the event that the search process is delayed and administrative appointments do not occur until the summer.

"It is aggressive and we are hopeful," Ball said. "If there are good reasons to slow it down, I would come to all of you and explain it."

Administrator Search Timeline

May 7 - Deadline to finish reviewing job descriptions

May 10 - Post jobs vacancies

May 17 - Deadline to assemble interview committees

May 25 - Application Deadline

May 28 - Screening applicants

June 11 - Complete first round interviews

June 18 - Complete second round interviews

June 25 - Complete final interviews

June 25 - Perform reference checks and site visits

June 29 - Board of Education appointment of new administrators

July 1 - Start date