“School committees are becoming conscious to the fact that the pool is becoming very narrow, and they’re thinking about those things,’’ said Michael Gilbert, field director for the Massachusetts Association of School Committees. “When you have someone who has the skill set that you’re looking for and knows the culture and needs of your district, it becomes about that continuity moving forward in the organization.’’
As soon as North Andover superintendent Christopher Hottel told the School Committee he would retire at the end of this academic year, committee members knew the best successor would be assistant superintendent Kevin Hutchinson, who is set to take over the top job on July 1.
“I think it’s wonderful. Think of the stock market - uncertainty is not a good thing,’’ said Christine Allen, School Committee chairwoman. “It makes people more comfortable when they know who their leaders are. In an economic sense, we don’t have to pay a search consultant, so we don’t have to go through all those machinations. We can work on other things, like educating. We’re lucky because the most important position is the superintendent, no doubt about it.’’
Of the 65 superintendent vacancies in the state last year, 15 were filled from within, said Thomas Scott, executive director at the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.
“There are a lot of people still pursuing large-scale searches, but the trend is still for assistant superintendents staying within the district,’’ Scott said. “More and more [school] committees realize if you go out in the market, the pool isn’t deep in terms of quality. . . . We would advise people, if you have somebody inside who is high-quality, you’d be crazy to go and do an outside search.’’
