SchoolCom looks for new member
Published on July 18th, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - New faces are typically what you get with the dawn of a new school year and this year is no different.
From the School Committee to the cafeteria, Stoneham students will have some new personalities working for them for the 2007-2008 school year.
At its July 12 meeting, a smaller than usual School Committee (committee member Joe Viselli was on vacation) announced that it will be working with the Board of Selectmen and Town Clerk to fill the vacancy on its board resulting from the recent departure of committee member Miriam Regan-Fiore.
Regan-Fiore announced last month that she was resigning from the School Committee and moving her family to Winchester. While her reasons for leaving town were largely personal, she did state that the town's grim fiscal state did play a part in her decision.
"I'm a parent first and, like any other parent, the budget and the schools' ability to retain services was of course a concern of mine," she told the Independent in May.
School Committee chairman Maureen Soley advised that, together with the Board of Selectmen, the School Committee is proceeding to fill the vacancy.
Town Clerk John Hanright outlined that process. While Regan-Fiore announced her intentions in May verbally, then followed up with a letter of resignation to the School Committee, the process for filling her vacancy could not begin until the Town Clerk received a written resignation to forward to the Board of Selectmen. The Town Clerk's office just received this document around the first of July.
Once notified, the Board of Selectmen works with the School Committee to appoint a replacement from the pool of interested residents who submitted applications for the post. The appointment is for a term that will end on election day in April 2008. The seat will then be open for the one year left in Regan-Fiore's original term. At the completion of that term, the seat will again be open, this time for a regular 3-year term.
Dr. Les Olson is getting his feet soaked since his arrival on July 1 as Stoneham's new School Superintendent. Olson told the School Committee that he appreciates the warm welcome he's received since his arrival on July 1, and took advantage of the quiet time that is typical around the July 4 holiday week, to meet with staff.
Stoneham's school lunch program is due for a face-lift as the School Committee awarded the food service management contract to Chartwell's. The contract is for five years, yet is up for review annually. After five years, the contract is subject to rebid. Business Manager Anthony DiCologero negotiated a provision in Stoneham's contract stating that Chartwells will forego its management fee if it does not meet its stated financial objectives in a fiscal year. The original copy of the contract was not available, and the School committee is expected to sign on the dotted line at its next meeting.
The contract with Chartwells is for management only. All lunch workers will continue to be Stoneham employees with the same benefits and salary that currently exists. School lunch pricing will remain the same. Any change in that fee schedule continues to be a function of the School Committee, and not that of Chartwell's.
Chartwell's is a well known school dining service provider used in varying sized school systems and colleges nationwide.
New faces are also expected to roam the halls of the various school buildings as resignations, retirements and negotiations have led to a number of changes, potentially up to $130,000 worth in savings to the school salary budget.
Finally, Olson, announced on Thursday that Stoneham Assistant Principal Ed Russo will serve as acting high school principal for the 2007-2008 school year. Long time SHS principal Tom Ryan retired at the end of this past school year after 23 years of service.
An advertisement for a high school principal, fairly late in the school year, yielded just five applicants for the position, and former school superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly and Olson decided that that was too small a pool to consider. An new advertisement to be placed earlier in the new school year is expected to lure more candidates, and a search committee would then be formed for evaluation and recommendation of candidates.
In other news, the School Committee looked favorably at a recommendation to form a cooperative girls field hockey team with Melrose High School due to low numbers of participants in each town, particularly with juniors and seniors.
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