School Comm. approves central office restructuring

The Canton School Committee gave the go-ahead at its June 8 meeting for Superintendent Derek Folan to hire a district personnel coordinator and also restructure the central staff administration. Folan said there will be no budgetary impacts and there could potentially even be some savings.

Folan tabbed former Technology Director Julie Shore as the new personnel coordinator and promoted current data analyst Josh Vogel to director of technology and data analytics. In addition, he promoted Stephen Marshall from director of finance and operations to assistant superintendent of finance and operations with Sarah Shannon assuming the title of assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and Deb Rooney, former K-12 director of teaching of teaching and learning, becoming the director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Meghan Byrne will remains as the director of student services, although Folan recently named two new assistant directors and a new multi-language learner (MLL) coordinator to assist Byrne.

Folan’s plan was approved by a 4-1 vote with member Maureen Moran opposed. Moran said she needed to see more details on the personal services contracts and potential impacts to the budget in future years.

Folan said the change in central staff grew out of a need to create a human resources position and to examine central office roles and responsibilities in an effort to optimize efficiency and effectiveness. While the district did put forward an HR generalist position, they were not able to fill that position with a qualified candidate.

Folan said he also felt the district needed a director-level position that serves as a member of the district leadership team, understands education and educators at a high level, and navigates the human resources with “fidelity, expertise, and decision-making abilities.”

Working with HR consultant Pam Gould and reviewing models at other Massachusetts schools, Folan opted to create the director of personnel services position, which will serve as the point person for all school-related HR matters while working closely with Jody Middleton, HR director for the town of Canton.

In his introductory letter to the committee on his plan, Folan said, “We want to keep our talented leaders and provide stability and consistency for the district. As a team, we feel very strongly that this plan will greatly help advance the work of the Canton Public Schools and support our community members.”

After the vote, Folan told the Citizen that district leaders were very excited about this plan. “The central office restructuring did not require any additional budget requests or funds,” he said. “We are maximizing the people we have on the district team — some with new roles — and we are making use efficient use of our existing funds. In particular, we are very excited to have a point person for human resources and personnel services, which has been a significant need.”

In other news from the June 8 meeting …

See this week’s Canton Citizen for more highlights from the June 8 School Committee meeting. Click here to subscribe to the Citizen, or check out our e-edition.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=114808

Posted by Mike Berger on Jun 16 2023. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.