The head of a committee charged with finding and assessing people who want to be Weymouth’s next school superintendent is defending the group’s decision to recommend only one candidate: the current assistant superintendent, Jennifer Curtis-Whipple.
“We were instructed not to put anyone forward as a finalist if we were not comfortable having that person as our next superintendent,’’ said committee chairwoman Kate McCulley, referring to advice from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, which acted as a consultant in the process.
“We were also advised that it would be unfair to put someone else forward as a second finalist just for the sake of having a second finalist, if there was a strong consensus that one candidate stood out above the others,’’ she said.
Mayor Robert Hedlund and others on the School Committee have criticized the search committee for forwarding only one name.
“The Search Committee is in effect choosing the next Weymouth superintendent,’’ Hedlund said in a statement. “It should be the elected, full School Committee that chooses the next superintendent, not an appointed search committee.’’
Twenty-two people applied for the job, which opens in July when Superintendent Kenneth Salim leaves to lead the Cambridge public school system.
McCulley said initially there was strong interest in one candidate, who dropped out of consideration on March 26. She said the search committee interviewed four other leading candidates on March 28 and voted on each as a potential finalist to be presented to the School Committee on April 7.
McCulley said the group decided it would only forward the names of applicants who received six or more votes from the 11-person committee.
“The search committee recommended only one candidate because there was only one candidate who received a majority of votes,’’ she said, adding that support for Curtis-Whipple was unanimous, and the next closest candidate had four votes.
The School Committee is scheduled to interview Curtis-Whipple in a public session on April 26.
Johanna Seltz can be reached at seltzjohanna@gmail.com.
