Decision on Kennedy principal coming soon

Canton School Superintendent Jeff Granatino plans to appoint a permanent principal for the John F. Kennedy Elementary School within the next week after narrowing the list of candidates down to two finalists: interim JFK Principal Sarah Collmer and Eric Stark, a principal in the Woburn school system.

Collmer was named interim principal in early September to replace Kimberly Sefrino, who left to take another position in the Lakeville school system. Collmer had previously served as the K-12 performing arts coordinator and would return to that position next fall if not selected. The new principal would start on July 1.

The two finalists met the approval of a screening committee made up of system administrators and parents. Granatino said the decision will be difficult as both are “outstanding” candidates.

In other personnel news, the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen will meet on Tuesday, February 11, to appoint a temporary School Committee member to replace Dave Emhardt, who resigned last month for personal reasons.

Whoever is appointed will serve for two months and may choose to run again in the April town election — either for the remaining two years left on Emhardt’s vacated term or for one of the two available three-year terms currently held by Reuki Schutt and John Bonnanzio.

As of last Thursday, School Committee Chairman Cindy Thomas said she knew of two residents who had sent letters of interest to the School Department. The deadline for submission was Friday, January 31.

In other news:

* School Business Manager Ken Leon said his review of the governor’s preliminary budget showed that Canton would receive an additional $80,000 in state aid next year. This will be taken under consideration by the town’s Revenue Forecast Committee, which is scheduled to meet this week to set the budget parameters for each town department.

* Granatino said he will bring the recommendations of the Early Start Time Committee to the full School Committee in late February or early March. Granatino said there will be no impact to next year’s school budget.

* School Committee members enthusiastically backed a proposal, submitted by James Walsh and Recreation Director Janet Maguire, to name the Luce School field in honor of Billy Cravens, a longtime Recreation Department employee and a Luce School alumnus. The committee plans to vote for the name change at its next meeting on February 13.

* Members of the Canton Parent Advisory Council for Student Services gave an overview of their organization to the School Committee, and CPACSS Co-President Tracie Pustizzi praised school administrators for their ongoing support. CPACSS is a non-profit networking group for parents of students receiving special needs services and serves as an advisory group to special needs administrators. CPACSS has planned eight workshops for parents this year. Besides Pustizzi, other officers for the group include Joyce Lauro, Sue Valente, Mitti Bhattacharya, and Anne Buckley.

* Granatino said he recently met with members of the Canton Minority Parent Group and plans to attend a future meeting.

* CHS science and engineering teacher Katie Healey gave an enthusiastic presentation of the CHS robotics program, which recently hosted a regional scrimmage featuring 10 other local teams. The team was due to compete in a state competition on Sunday, February 2. Healey said there is great interest in robotics at the middle school and even in the elementary schools. She said the robotics team, which is co-led by visual arts teacher Kirk Pantos, is a great teaching tool for students because it promotes teamwork, problem solving, and communication.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Feb 6 2014. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.