Andover's search for a superintendent continues, as the School Committee will visit finalists' home districts next week, observing them on the job.
Four finalists are in the running for Andover's top school job: Susan Nicholson, assistant superintendent in Andover; Kelly Clenchy, superintendent of a regional school district in Orono, Maine; Christopher Farmer, superintendent of Gloucester schools; and Marinel McGrath superintendent of Hamilton-Wenham regional schools and former assistant superintendent in Andover. All four have classroom teaching experience, several of them internationally.
This fall, Claudia Bach, Andover's superintendent since 1998, announced her intention to step down by the end of the school year. She was given permission to leave earlier if she finds a job before then.
The advertisement posting Bach's job listed a salary range of $180,000 to $200,000, an increase for all of the finalists. Clenchy, superintendent for a rural Maine district, makes less than most school principals and several assistant principals in Andover.
Through the first week in March, the candidates will come to Andover, meeting with residents, students and school staff before sitting down with the School Committee for interviews. A reception to meet the public will be held for each candidate from 3 to 4 p.m. at the senior center.
The School Committee is scheduled to vote and hire a new superintendent the evening of Thursday, March 4, after its final interview with Marinel McGrath.
Superintendent candidates
Kelly Clenchy, superintendent for regional school unit No. 26, Maine
Salary for 2009-10: $98,522
Clenchy, 53, oversees schools in three Maine towns, Orono, Veazie and Glenburn, that were consolidated into a regional school district this summer. Before the consolidation, Clenchy was superintendent to two of the towns, overseeing two school budgets and two separate districts, each with its own school committee.
Within the last year, Clenchy has been named as a finalist in superintendent searches in North Andover and East Bridgewater. Clenchy's wife, Brooke, is the superintendent in Winchendon, Mass., a town about an hour from Andover, near the New Hampshire border.
Before becoming a superintendent in Maine in 2004, Clenchy served as a director of education, a site-based district administrator and a classroom teacher in Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada.
Clenchy graduated from the University of Calgary with a bachelor of education and received his M.Ed. in administration and curriculum from Gonzaga University.
Christopher Farmer, superintendent for Gloucester Public Schools
Salary for 2009-2010: $145,000
Farmer was at the helm of Gloucester schools as Gloucester High School was thrust into the media spotlight after a higher than usual number of students there became pregnant in the spring of 2008. The situation gained international attention after the term "pregnancy pact" was used in a Time Magazine article.
His contract with Gloucester runs through Aug. 11, 2011, provides a $2,600 vehicle and professional development allowance and 22 vacation days for this year.
Before coming to Massachusetts in 2003, Farmer served as a middle school principal for the Saratoga Union School District in California for six years. Previous to that, he worked as superintendent of schools in Coventry, England and served the Sheffield School District in England for 11 years, first as the program director, then assistant superintendent, and finally as the deputy superintendent.
His classroom teaching experience, all in England, includes geography, English and history. Farmer attended the University of Cambridge, England, earning both his bachelor's and masters in geography, archaeology and anthropology, as well as a post graduate certificate in education with distinction in teaching.
Marinel McGrath, superintendent of Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District
McGrath earned $175,676 for fiscal year 2009
In May 2008, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges placed Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School on warning status for concerns including the elimination of core courses, increasing class sizes, 100 percent student user fees for athletics and inadequate funding to support the school's staffing levels, course offerings, co-curricular activities and technology. The school budget that year hinged on overrides by both Hamilton and Wenham Town Meeting voters. Between 2002 and 2008, the district had eliminated 80 full-time teaching positions and phased out the French program for incoming students, offering only Spanish at the high school.
McGrath teaches as an adjunct professor at Boston University in addition to her duties in Hamilton-Wenham.
Before leaving for Hamilton-Wenham, McGrath served for seven years as assistant superintendent in Andover. From 1986-1995 she was the director of curriculum and instruction, PK-12 for the Newburyport Public Schools.
McGrath received her bachelor's in French and English from Indiana University, her masters in educational psychology from the University of Connecticut, and her Ed.D. in Education Policy from Boston University.
Susan Nicholson, assistant superintendent in Andover
Salary was $135,406 for fiscal year 2009
Nicholson has worked in Andover for two years, during which she completed her doctorate.
Before coming to Andover as an interim assistant superintendent in 2007, Nicholson was the principal of North Andover High School for eight years, and the assistant principal for two years.
Previous to that, she taught high school in Lowell, Methuen and Lawrence for 26 years.
Nicholson received her bachelor's degree in business education from Salem State College, her M.Ed. in Secondary School Administration from Northeastern University, and her Ed.D. in Leadership in Education from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Her husband, Arthur Nicholson, is the former principal of Methuen High School and now works as the superintendent's assistant for special projects, overseeing a renovation of the high school.
