District officials said this week that they’ve launched a search for a new Saxe Middle School principal and expect to gather applications through the end of this month.
The successor to Greg Macedo, who is retiring, will have “big shoes to fill,” Board of Education Secretary Jennifer Richardson said at the group’s regular meeting on Monday night.
“It’s really cool because he [Macedo] feels so strongly that the school is in such a great place and he wanted to wait for the auditorium to be ready,” Richardson said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “He’s just [done] such an amazing job and it’s such a loss to for all of us.”
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi noted that two dozen applicants had already put in for the job and that Saxe as oen of the largest middle schools in the state with its two-division system “is a very appealing spot for folks.”
“And having sat in on the focus group with [Saxe] PTC presidents, it is clear that we need to hire at least five people to do Greg’s job.”
According to the human resources director for New Canaan Public Schools, Gary Kass, the PTC co-prsidents are one of “various constituent groups” from whom the district is seeking information about qualities that a future Saxe principal should possess. Others are parents and the public, who are invited to attend a meeting at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 14 in the Saxe auditorium, faculty at Saxe and students, too.
“I have scheduled two meetings with assistant principals to bring a representative group of lower division Saxe students and upper division Saxe students, two separate meetings where I have an opportunity to hear what they have to say about the selection process for the next principal,” Kass said.
Together with Assistant Superintendent of Pupil and Family Services Darlene Pianka and Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment Dr. Jill Correnty, Kass is reviewing every candidate and will hold screening interviews, he said.
The trio also is in the process of selecting a search committee that will include them as well as the PTC presidents or representatives they choose, a Board of Ed member, a Saxe assistant principal, elementary school principal, rep from the New Canaan Education Association, administrators and a wide range of teachers.
The search committee will interview about six to eight candidates and forward two or three of them to the superintendent for a final decision, Kass said. The new principal will start July 1.