The salary range for area school superintendents is $120,943 to $155,000.
WESTFIELD – The School Committee has adopted a schedule that puts it in line to appoint a new superintendent of schools in April.
The committee this week also agreed to appoint an Ad Hoc Screening Committee to assist in the selection.
The committee still intends to seek public input on the character qualities a new superintendent should have and is expected to accept comment online.
Committee member Laura K. Maloney requested creation of a screening group, with membership of about 13 people representing school administration, school employee groups, parents and a member of the public without children in the system.
That committee will help screen applicants and meet with them before any commit as a formal candidate for the top school post.
“This process will be done in executive session as much as allowed by law before anyone considers becoming an official candidate,” said Maloney, who will chair the committee.
“This will offer confidentiality to candidates while they consider their prospects of coming to Westfield,” she said.
Committee member Mary Beth Ogulewicz Sacco agreed. “This is a wonderful idea to involve the stock holders in this process,” she said.
The School Department’s Human Resources Department headed by Helen M. Bowler will coordinate the search. She told the committee Monday that several phases of the process can be completed simultaneously.
The School Committee is now reviewing the job description for superintendent for possible revision. The existing job requirements are four years old.
The committee is expected to solicit staff and community input during the next several weeks. It will then decide a salary range and application deadline in early January. The official posting of the position, being vacated with the retirement of Shirley Alvira next July, will be advertised sometime in January.
The Ad Hoc Screening Committee will be appointed and begin work in February, according to the timetable.
Interviews with finalists and visits to school districts of those finalists is expected in March. The intent is to appoint by April and establish a transition period for the new superintendent in May and June.
Alvira currently earns $126,840 annually. She has been superintendent for four years.
Bowler presented a salary range, current salaries paid to superintendents throughout the state, of $120,943 in Southwick-Tolland Regional School District to a high of $229,000 paid to the superintendent in Cambridge.
The salary range for Western Massachusetts school superintendents, according to the range provided by Bowler, represents the low of $120,943 to a high of $155,000 paid in Longmeadow.