Search for New Belmont Superintendent Nears Finalist Stage

Every now and then in the past few weeks, if you are around the Belmont School Administration Building in the Town Hall complex in Belmont Center, you would have likely seen a steady collection of men and women in their best attire look a little puzzled as they approach what is the rear of the building from the parking lot, some deciding to walk up the small incline around the structure to enter through the front door.

They do want to make a good impression coming through the front as they are the candidates to be the new Superintendent of the Belmont School District, which is the town's largest employer and controls 56 percent of town's annual budget now pegged at more than $50 million in the coming fiscal year. 

According to School Committee Chair Laurie Graham, the first-round of interviews to find the educator to succeed long-time "interim" School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston is nearly complete and the selection of a group of three to five finalists is about to occur. 

In a report to the School Committee at their Tuesday night, Nov. 12, meeting at the Chenery Middle School, Graham, who also heads to screening committee, told Belmont Patch that she anticipates to have a "short list" of finalists completed in approximately one week, on Nov. 20. It is not yet known when the final list will be released to the public other then it will be before the Thanksgiving school break beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 27, said Graham.

And it is unlikely that the candidates will have their final round of interviews until the first week in December as candidates will need to work around their schedules to come to Belmont, said Graham.

Each candidate will be interviewed by staff and teachers and then before the public with the School Committee. Surveys will be given to residents who attend the interviews to evaluate the candidates and those will be taken into consideration by the Committee in their deliberations. 

Graham told the committee that she hopes an offer will be extended to one of the finalists before the December recess that begins Friday, Dec. 20.