Bridgewater-Raynham Schools
February 1, 2007
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Bridgewater-Raynham Schools
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Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
Most, if not all, of the local papers have reported for the past couple of days that Bridgewater-Raynham Schools Superintendent will be taking a position in Barrington, RI effective July 1st. As a member of the B-R School Committee, there are a few points I personally wish to bring forward:
(a) No official notification has been made by the Superintendent to the School Committee as of today. This is not to imply that the reports are erroneous – only that we have not been told.
(b) Plans are being made to schedule what will essentially be a one-item School Committee meeting sometime in the coming days. I would anticipate hearing from the Superintendent and his announcing that he will be leaving the B-R School District.
(c) At that point, the B-R School Committee can begin discussing what options we have for determining a new Superintendent. There are a number of groups that assist in the process for finding school leadership personnel, such as NESDEC and MASC.
(d) Some have questioned the ‘abandon ship mentality’ as a couple of administrators will have left recently. Dr. Diane Bemis left a role as Assistant Superintendent at B-R to become Superintendent for the Littleton, MA school system. Dr. Robert McIntyre’s departure after eleven years with B-R is a function of pension rules. Once a person reaches a certain age and years of service combination, he/she maxes out possible pension benefits. Hence, many Administrators retire from MA and continue their career in neighboring states. (Working outside of MA does not affect MA pension benefits.) So, I do not see any grand conspiracy or other issue here for their departure – they both have very different reasons.
When a date/time/location is determined for school committee meetings, it will be announced.
