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superintendent of schools

    SUPERINTENDENT SELECTED

    Brooke Clenchy Chosen to Lead Nauset Schools

    The current interim sees ‘so much goodness and good work we can do’

    By

    ORLEANS — Expressing strong support for the candidate who has served as interim superintendent for the last seven months, school authorities chose Brooke Clenchy to be the next long-term occupant of the office at a meeting on Jan. 28.

    Clenchy has been the interim head of the four-town regional school district since July 1, 2021. Pending contract negotiations, she will step into the permanent role on July 1, 2022.

    “We owe the Superintendent Search Committee a great thank you for the time that they put in and the effort and energy that brought us here today,” said regional school committee chair Chris Easley at the beginning of the meeting. The process began a year ago, he noted.

    Nauset Regional Schools’ next superintendent, Brooke Clenchy, at her desk at the district’s central office in Orleans. (Photo courtesy Brooke Clenchy)

    The decision followed public forums held on Zoom with the two finalists for the position — Clenchy and Wareham Assistant School Supt. Andrea Schwamb. During the forums, consultant Patty Grenier, who facilitated the search process, asked questions submitted by community members. The Joint School Committee conducted final interviews with the candidates on Thursday, Jan. 27.

    The Joint School Committee comprises the individual school committees of the four district towns, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet, and the 10-member regional school committee.

    After Easley spoke at the Jan. 28 joint session, Wellfleet School Committee member Jill Putnam was the first to say she’d be voting for Clenchy “because Brooke has a lot of experience with complicated regional school districts.”

    Putnam noted the district’s complexity with various finance departments, select boards, and communities. “Brooke came to us with experience, and she has now had experience on the job with us during a horrifically difficult time,” Putnam continued. “She sees the complications of our regional school system as a positive.”

    Eastham School Committee member Edgar Miranda spoke about Clenchy’s character.

    “There are two traits that I always look at very carefully: the spirit of collaboration and humility,” he said. “I think when you have a real leader who is humble, who is confident, who is sure of herself, they don’t have a problem delegating for positive reasons on certain projects.” Miranda said he thinks these attributes will allow Clenchy to help district leaders grow.

    Runner up Schwamb had come highly recommended for “her warmth, her vision, and her commitment” said regional school committee member Dick Stewart. But he noted that she had only spent about a year and a half managing her current district’s budget.

    Tom Fitzgibbons, another member of the regional school committee, praised both finalists. He called Clenchy “a seasoned professional” who is “at the top of her game.” Schwamb, he said, “presented herself as a wonderful human being. She had some significant accomplishments in her career, and I was impressed with a lot of them.”

    The Joint School Committee meeting was held on Friday, a day earlier than planned, because of the approaching winter storm. Nearly all 30 members attended the remote session.

    Cathryn Lonsdale and Griffin Ryder of the regional committee expressed concern that Clenchy’s status as interim superintendent gave her an advantage in the hiring process.

    Judy Schumacher, vice chair of the regional committee, countered that “being the interim could work for you or it could work against you. She could have spent these seven months impressing us, or she could have spent the seven months doing things we didn’t care for.”

    Schumacher added that she admired Clenchy’s respect for the original one-year mandate for the interim position. “She hasn’t come in and tried to steer the ship in another direction,” she said. “She’s come in and built foundational relationships.”

    Though all attendees could express a preference for one candidate, only members of the regional school committee and Union #54 school committee had a vote in the hiring. Three members of each elementary school committee were appointed by their respective committees to serve on the Union #54 committee. All 22 members of the group voted to appoint Clenchy.

    Union #54 was created in 1958 when the district was regionalized. Today, Union #54 conducts bargaining with the Nauset Education Association, which represents all unionized employees across the district.

    Clenchy joined the meeting after Grenier delivered the news of her appointment over the phone. She was visibly moved; “I’ve got goosebumps,” she said.

    “I really believe with all my heart that I’m the right person, in the right place, at the right time right now,” she told the committee. “I see so much goodness and good work that we can do. We have the right team.”

    Contract negotiations are still pending. Historically, negotiations are led by the regional committee chair and union chair, who are Easley and Orleans School Committee member Gail Briere, respectively. Briere was also the Superintendent Search Committee chair.

    Before adjournment, Clenchy thanked the committee for convening on a Friday night before a major snowstorm. The Zoom call ended with exchanged wishes that everyone “stay warm.”

    WITHDRAWN

    Tiano Drops Out of School Search

    His withdrawal leaves just two candidates for superintendent

    By

    Frank Tiano, one of three remaining finalists for the job of Nauset School Superintendent after the withdrawal of Sara Ahern last week, has also withdrawn his candidacy, leaving just two people in the running, Brooke Clenchy and Andrea Schwamb.

    A source connected with the search said Tiano had dropped out on Friday, Jan. 21 for personal reasons.

    In the past year, Tiano has been a finalist for superintendent jobs in North Attleboro, Duxbury, Amesbury, and Saugus in addition to the Nauset district.

    In an interview in Saugus, he stressed that effective communication was his most important job.

    Tiano did not respond to the Independent’s multiple interview requests prior to his withdrawal.

    Dr. Frank Tiano is currently the principal of Dover-Sherborn Middle School. (Photo courtesy Frank Tiano)

    He is currently the interim principal of Dover-Sherborn Middle School. He served as superintendent in Uxbridge from 2018 to 2021 and was assistant superintendent of the Framingham Public Schools from 2015 to 2018. From 2010 to 2015 he was superintendent of the Chelmsford Public Schools, where he had 10 years of experience as an elementary and middle school principal.

    In 2014, the U.S. Dept. of Education recognized him as one of 100 superintendents successfully transitioning his district to digital learning. That year, the Chelmsford School Committee lauded his performance and voted to give him a performance bonus. The next year, however, Tiano resigned amid controversies about finances and transparency.

    In 2015 an eight-year-old student reported that a Chelmsford teacher’s aide had inappropriately touched him. Charges of indecent assault were later dropped when prosecutors learned the employee was receiving hospice care for a terminal illness. But in the 12 days between the time Tiano placed the employee on administrative leave and his release of a public statement to parents, the Lowell Sun received leaked information and reported the incident.

    Tiano said the developing investigation prevented him from being able to discuss the situation with parents. Chelmsford Police Chief James Spinney applauded the cooperation of Tiano and the administration.

    “As a parent, you can never understand what we do on a day-to-day basis and what we know,” Tiano said.

    That same school year, Chelmsford racked up a $500,000 budget deficit, which led to laying off three district administrators. Two of the three later won arbitration suits against the district, according to the Lowell Sun.

    “I had a 15-year career in Chelmsford that was mostly stellar,” said Tiano. “But when you Google me, you get a nice four-month snippet.”

    SUPERINTENDENT FINALIST

    Brooke Clenchy Wants to Make Education ‘Impactful’

    Nauset’s interim superintendent defends funding for arts and athletics

    By

    Brooke Clenchy, one of two remaining finalists for the Nauset School Superintendent, set out to be a teacher before she even entered kindergarten. She and her brother played school at home from the time Clenchy was four or five.

    “My poor brother, always the student and never the teacher,” she told the Independent, remembering how she used to monopolize their imaginary classroom. When she finally did get to kindergarten, her leadership skills set her apart, she said. Her teacher, Mrs. Moore, separated students into groups and designated Clenchy the leader of hers.

    Clenchy said she still talks about Mrs. Moore when she gives presentations about how teachers influence children. “I can still see the kindness on her face, and the warmth,” she said.

    Clenchy has two decades of experience as a school administrator. She grew up in Ontario, Canada and received a bachelor’s degree in education from Queen’s University at Kingston. She grew up playing the piano and also has a degree in music, which was among the first subjects she taught in grades 2 to 12 at the Three Hills, then the Grasslands Schools in Alberta.

    Brooke Clenchy will become the Nauset Regional School District’s interim superintendent on July 1. (Photo courtesy Brooke Clenchy)

    “I have such a love for the arts,” Clenchy said. She said that across her career as a superintendent, she’s tried to protect the arts from budget cuts. “I just knew that arts and athletics helped to shape our children as much as the academics did.”

    Clenchy said throughout the Covid-19 pandemic she’s worked especially hard to balance academic and social-emotional learning. “This is not a normal time for any of us to experience,” she added.

    Nauset’s strategic plan, which outlines the district’s goals for learners and educators over the next five years, states that fostering “self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making” will help students form healthy relationships and achieve academic success. Clenchy agrees, calling these cornerstones of a supportive and sustainable learning environment.

    So is ensuring that every student eats, said Clenchy. When she was superintendent of the Winchendon Schools, she said, she streamlined the process of applying for free and reduced lunch by reducing paperwork.

    “When a child is well fed, when they’re well taken care of, then the academics come naturally,” said Clenchy. “But you have to make sure that those other pieces are in place.”

    Clenchy held her first acting superintendent position in 2002-2003 at the Golden Plains School Division in Saskatchewan after an unexpected resignation from the sitting director. She oversaw schools in multiple communities and participated in discussions and events preceding the school division’s regionalization.

    In the U.S., Clenchy got her first teaching certification from Maine in 2003. She led Maine School Administrative District #45 in Washburn as superintendent from 2003 to 2007.

    At that point, she began getting certified in Massachusetts. Clenchy had spent years visiting cousins in Boston, where she said she would look out over the city and river and think “this is where I want to be.” The Mass. Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education granted Clenchy’s certification in 2008. She then became superintendent in Winchendon before going to Ashland.

    Most recently, she was superintendent of the Nashoba Regional School District in Bolton.

    “One of the things I really like about regional districts is that each community has its own story, its own dynamic, its own legacy, its own set of core values,” she said. Along with maintaining consistent educational experiences across schools that feed into regional high schools, Clenchy said, “It’s always been critically important to me that those communities retain who they are in their schools.”

    Clenchy hasn’t worked in a district with school choice before but said she supports the idea. When asked how she might combat falling enrollment, she said she expects that the renovation of Nauset Regional High School, due to begin in February, will generate excitement and attract students to the system. She also thinks community initiatives to pay for pre-K programming for three- and four-year-olds in Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown may attract more young families to the district.

    While Clenchy was superintendent at Nashoba, the Boston Globe reported in November 2019 that a group of parents sought an independent investigation into the district’s handling of a criminal case against teacher Dorothy Veracka, who pleaded guilty to sending nude photos to a 15-year-old student.

    The group of parents who called for the investigation alleged that Nashoba Regional High School Principal Paul DiDomenico insufficiently investigated accusations against Veracka. They also pushed for Clenchy to be put on administrative leave, saying she would be unable to be impartial in an investigation.

    Attorney Tim D. Norris, working for the Nashoba School Committee, submitted a report on the investigation on March 11, 2020. He wrote, “It is the province of the school committee to determine whether Superintendent Clenchy engaged in actionable misconduct.” Three weeks later, MassLive reported that the school committee unanimously agreed Clenchy wasn’t at fault.

    Clenchy said she did not hear about the nude photos until late September, although she was aware in July that Veracka had given intoxicated students rides home from a party.

    Working to rebuild the community’s trust in the administration, Clenchy said she met a number of times with the district’s entire staff. The administration hired a panel of human resources and legal representatives for a Q&A session, then hired a trauma specialist for students.

    In a public forum held by the Nauset superintendent search committee on Monday evening, Clenchy was asked about maintaining fiscal responsibility in the region.

    “I would very much like to see a greater connection between department chairs to monitor expenditures throughout the course of the year,” she said.

    The reduction of face-to-face connection among students, staff, and educators brought about by Covid-19 has been difficult, Clenchy said. But she added that the questions she asks herself are the same as they were before the pandemic: “How do we make education come alive? How do we make education so it’s impactful for children? Is it relevant? Is it meaningful? When I know that the answer is yes, I know that we’re doing what’s right for children.”

    SUPERINTENDENT FINALIST

    Andrea Schwamb Wants to Foster Inclusiveness

    Wareham’s assistant superintendent says leaders need to ‘show up’

    By

    Andrea Schwamb. (Photo courtesy Andrea Schwamb)

    When she was 14 years old, Andrea Schwamb moved to Orleans, and Cape Cod has been home ever since. Her family had moved from Alabama to Germany to Framingham, as her father’s military assignments changed.

    Years later, Schwamb said, she would pick up her daughter, now 29, from school, drive by the ocean, and say, “Look how lucky we are. People come from all over the world to see this, and we get to look at it every day.”

    In an interview with the Independent, Schwamb said she understands the true demographics of the Cape. While she knows this is an idyllic vacationland, she said, she also knows the economic challenges faced by the year-round community when the tourist economy hibernates for winter.

    Schwamb is the assistant superintendent of the Wareham Schools, but she lives in Hyannis. She spent the bulk of her career in the Falmouth Public Schools. From 1998 to 2005, she taught seventh- and eighth-grade English in Falmouth. Her experience also included sitting on an interview committee for a new guidance counselor, working on administrative disciplinary procedures for students, and coordinating alternative education.

    While Schwamb said she loved teaching, it was her principal in Falmouth who encouraged her to go into school leadership. She pursued a master’s degree in educational leadership with the idea that it would help her “navigate the system.”

    Schwamb received that degree from Salem State College in May 2004. The following January, she took her first central office position as interim assistant principal at a Falmouth elementary school.

    There, she said, “I was able to actually participate in so many families’ and kids’ lives.” She became chair of the special education team, a role that tapped a longstanding interest. Before completing her undergraduate studies in education and humanities at Lesley College, Schwamb had applied to become a paraprofessional working with autistic students.

    As team chair, she met with paraprofessionals monthly. Since they support students at every level in and out of the classroom, Schwamb wanted to ensure they felt valued. “To me,” she said, “that was key in promoting a culture of people who were happy.”

    After the six-month interim assistant principal experience, Schwamb decided not to return to teaching; she took an assistant principal post in Duxbury, which she held until July 2006. That August, she returned to the Falmouth Public Schools as an assistant principal. She then served as a principal from 2009 to 2014. During that time, she received a doctorate in education from Northeastern University.

    If she is chosen for the Nauset superintendent job, Schwamb said, she would draft a plan for connecting with district leadership, students, and town leadership in Nauset communities to find out where to focus her efforts. She said she’d like to meet with the principals of all schools weekly and also plans to establish a student advisory committee to keep students’ interests at the forefront.

    Schwamb is no stranger to tough conversations. Her first teaching experience involved working with men on probation from incarceration in a Vermont prison. One of them, she said, was a white supremacist who had been convicted of a hate crime.

    “I had to remember that it was my responsibility to present information, because it’s not my job to change people’s minds,” she said. “It’s my job to give information so that they can make up their own minds.”

    After that experience, Schwamb said, she developed a firm belief in telling the truth about how systemic racism affects our communities and culture.

    When asked how she’d approach teaching anti-racism in a predominantly white district, Schwamb said she thinks incorporating primary source documents into the history curriculum is key. “I think it behooves all of us, no matter our demographics, to tell the truth through history and through writing,” she said. The truth, she said, “is not just white.”

    Having diverse teams of educators is important, Schwamb said. She also wants to take a hard look at current school policies and handbooks and ask, “Are they inclusive?”

    Ultimately, Schwamb said she hopes to foster a love of education in students from all backgrounds.

    Schwamb said she knows that she has to build trust in order to do important work. “I have to show up,” she said. “It takes time, so you can’t give up.” She said she wants to hear directly from students about where Nauset should improve.

    Already, students at Nauset Middle School have impressed Schwamb with their candor and openness. During her district site visit last week, Schwamb said, she asked them to show her places in the school that they love rather than those they think she as an administrator might be interested in seeing.

    “Show up when you say you’re going to show up,” she said. “I don’t think it takes a whole lot, but it definitely takes a level of consistency.”

    FINAL FOUR

    Finalists for Nauset Superintendent Include Clenchy

    Visits to the four candidates’ districts will be followed by public forums

    By

    ORLEANS — The Nauset Regional School District Superintendent Search Committee has named four finalists after interviewing seven from among a field of 17 candidates. The district’s 15-member expanded search committee, made up of parents, students, teachers, and administrators, announced its choices in an open Zoom meeting on Saturday after a closed executive session. They had deliberated for four hours.

    “To get 15 people to come to consensus is a rich process,” said consultant Patricia Grenier, a former Barnstable school superintendent, who was hired to facilitate a search that has been officially underway since Oct. 5, 2021.

    All meetings leading to the final selection will now be conducted in open session. The state’s Open Meeting Law does not allow screening committees to meet in executive session after they have chosen finalists.

    Brooke Clenchy, Nauset’s interim superintendent, is one of the finalists. The others are Sara Ahern, the current superintendent of the Franklin Public Schools; Andrea Schwamb, the assistant superintendent of the Wareham Public Schools; and Frank Tiano, former superintendent of the public schools in Chelmsford and later Uxbridge. The resumes of the finalists are posted under the “Superintendent Search” link on the district’s website.

    “It’s important to me that Nauset gets the right leader, whoever that is,” said Clenchy after the finalists were announced. Clenchy started as interim superintendent this past July. Over the last six months, Clenchy said, she has worked on creating a school committee handbook that will be adopted next month and on a strategic plan and vision for the public schools moving forward.

    Schwamb said she’s looking forward to having the screening committee members visit Wareham, where they will get to meet people who know her well. As assistant superintendent, she said, she implemented the International Baccalaureate program in 2017 and has found that, since then, students are more “actively engaged in their own learning.”

    Ahern is also a candidate for the superintendent’s position in Barnstable Public Schools, as reported by the Franklin Observer on Jan. 4. She is currently in her third year of a six-year contract in Franklin.

    In the Observer article, former Franklin School Committee member Jen D’Angelo expressed disappointment that Ahern was leaving, saying “the consistency and commitment in leadership” the contract implies was “one-sided.” The current school committee vice chair Elise Stokes, however, defended Ahern, saying, “Franklin has been fortunate to have a dedicated superintendent who understands effective education, policy, operations, and long-range planning.”

    Neither Ahern nor Tiano was available for comment before this week’s deadline.

    Over the course of the next two weeks, three of the six core search committee members will visit the candidates in their districts. There, they expect to meet with parents, staff, and faculty to better understand the candidates’ performance. The three are Chair Gail Briere, who is also chair of the Orleans School Committee; Martha Gordon, chair of the Wellfleet School Committee; and Judith Schumacher, vice chair of the Nauset Regional School Committee.

    Two teachers on the search committee, Eloise MacLelland of Nauset Regional Middle School and Lisa Brown of Nauset Regional High School, will visit separately. And Briere said the committee will encourage another parent, teacher, administrator, or staff member to accompany the group as well.

    In Saturday’s open session, the screening committee members debated whether the visits — historically on-site and in-person — should be done online instead because of the pandemic.

    “I’m really torn,” said Briere. Some members worried about giving an unfair advantage to candidates who allowed an in-person visit if others didn’t; other committee members lamented the possible loss of the nuanced view an in-person visit provides.

    “We have got to go to the schools and see our person in their environment,” said committee member Richard Stewart.

    Orleans Elementary School Principal Elaine Pender agreed. “The intangible things you collect from those experiences give so much more depth to what those candidates have told you,” she said.

    As of Sunday, Grenier confirmed that all four finalists had given permission for an in-person visit.

    After the visits are complete, the candidates will visit the Nauset School District by turns from Jan. 20 to 25. They will tour two or three schools, meet the administrative leadership, and be present at an open forum where students, staff, and parents can questions publicly ask questions.

    “We’re still working out the logistics to try and make it hybrid, so that if there are questions from people who don’t want to come in live because of Covid, they would still have an opportunity,” said Grenier.

    The Joint School Committee, which consists of all 30 members of each town school committee plus the regional committee, will conduct final interviews with the candidates on Jan. 27. They have yet to decide whether the interviews will happen in person or on Zoom.

    On Saturday, Jan. 29, the committee members will meet to deliberate in an open session and announce their choice for superintendent.

    SCHOOLS

    Nauset Superintendent Pick Expected by End of January

    What to expect when you’re selecting

    By

    ORLEANS — A new superintendent for the Nauset Regional School District is expected to be announced on Jan. 29 at a 9 a.m. meeting after finalists’ interviews are conducted in public on Thursday, Jan. 27.

    Leading up to that, January will be a marathon of meetings, many of them closed to the press and public, during which the search committee will comb through 17 applications to whittle them down to two or three finalists.

    To understand the selection process, it helps to get a picture of the bureaucracy that governs a regional school district.

    The four district towns — Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, and Brewster — send children to the district’s schools. Each town has its own elementary school and its own elementary school committee.

    The middle and high schools are regional, and one regional school committee governs both of those schools.

    The superintendent, who oversees all of these schools, is hired and supervised by yet another entity, the joint school committee. The joint committee includes members of all of the elementary and regional school committees.

    A six-member search committee, which includes members from the elementary and regional bodies, is in charge of the meeting marathon ahead.

    Following closed meetings on Jan. 4, 5, and 6, the finalists will be selected on Jan. 8, at the end of a five-hour executive session, the last of the closed meetings in the series, said Kathleen Spencer, the consultant hired by the Nauset District to guide the search process.

    The finalists will be named publicly after that — as soon as “their viability for and continued interest in the position is confirmed,” Spencer wrote in an email.

    Though the public-school superintendent hiring process must be conducted in open session, the Mass. Open Meeting law allows private meetings “to consider or interview applicants for employment or appointment by a preliminary screening committee if the chair declares that an open meeting will have a detrimental effect in obtaining qualified applicants.”

    Between Jan. 13 and 18, members of the search committee, which is chaired by retired Orleans Elementary School Principal Gail Briere, will visit the finalists in their current jobs, presumably in schools, for a half day each.

    The finalists will visit the Nauset schools between January 20 and 25.

    The next meeting, held in open session, will be on Tuesday, Jan. 25 at 8:30 a.m. via Zoom, during which the search committee members will refine their interview questions and outline the interview process.

    On Jan. 27 — the exact time has not been announced — the search committee and the Nauset Joint School Committee will interview the finalists and vote to select a new leader. Interim Supt. Brooke Clenchy has said she is among the 17 applicants and would like the job.

    To attend the public meetings, go to nausetschools.org and follow the links provided under the subheading “about” and click on “superintendent search.”

    The Independent could not find recordings of past public search committee meetings. Spencer said she too was unable to locate them.

    SCHOOLS

    Search for New Nauset Superintendent Begins

    By

    ORLEANS — If everything goes according to plan, the Nauset Regional Schools will name a new superintendent by Jan. 29, 2022.

    Thus far, the search committee has held four public forums and sent out a questionnaire to gather parent opinions on what they are looking for in the new leader, who will succeed retired Supt. Tom Conrad. Conrad served since 2015, following 21 years as Nauset Regional High School’s principal. The public input will be used to write the job description to be posted between Nov. 15 and Dec. 2, said consultant Kathleen Spencer of the Grenier Company.

    Parent participation as of Monday has not been great. The largest school district on the Outer Cape, Nauset has an enrollment of 1,426. But only 135 responses to a four-question survey sent to parents on Oct. 14 were returned, according to consultant Patricia Grenier. The questionnaire was open to other residents who went to the district’s website to fill it out.

    Just 10 parents attended an Oct. 18 forum, while none showed up for the two previous forums, and only a handful came to the first, said Chris Easley, a Wellfleet parent and chair of the regional school committee.

    The parents who appeared on Oct. 18 sketched out a picture of what they wanted.

    Constance Kremer, who has children in the Orleans elementary and Nauset middle schools, said, “I would love to see a superintendent who is inspired and an excellent listener,” adding, “I would love to see a female in this role. It is time.”

    Others said they wanted a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and someone who will pay attention to social-emotional learning. A leader who will encourage professional development and best-practice models was another priority.

    Rhonda Sigel, who has a child at the high school, said that the new head should be able to cope with the high school renovation slated to take place between 2022 and 2025. Sigel said she hopes school choice, which currently brings in about one-third of the student population, continues. “I find it to be very enriching,” she said.

    A call for candidates for the job of interim superintendent yielded 19 applicants, many of them women, including Brooke Clenchy, who was hired. Clenchy, who started in July, is applying for the permanent job.

    Many parents were specific about what they see as Nauset’s strengths.

    Brewster parent Erica Tso Haidas said the past two years have “been kind of crazy” due to the pandemic, “and the teachers have been so dedicated to the students.” Teachers did not bring their own stress to the children, she said.

    The district is well funded, added Adam O’Shea of Eastham.

    The staff is talented, and the region has been committed to education, said Easley.

    Torr Olsen of Brewster described a strong sense of community, adding that he would like the new head to continue in the same vein as the past. “Keep up the general trajectory,” he said. “Keep the momentum toward quality and advocating for the children. That is really all. Keep the standards high.”

    The search committee includes six school committee members: Richard Stewart, Judy Schumacher, Judi Lech, Ann Crozier, Martha Gordon, and Gail Briere. Two parents, two teachers, two administrators, two students, and a central office staffer will join in the decision-making at future meetings, said Briere, chair of the committee. Parents can apply to be on the committee by emailing Arlynn Consiglio, the superintendent’s assistant, at [email protected].

    The public can follow and participate in the hiring process by watching the virtual search committee meetings beginning Nov. 10 with the first meeting with new members.

    On Jan. 8, during a five-hour work session, the committee plans to announce the finalists and draft final interview questions, Spencer said. There will be site visits to the finalists’ places of work, and then interviews will be conducted on Jan. 27 in an open meeting.

    The new superintendent will be announced on Saturday, Jan. 29, and will start on July 1, 2022.

    To access meeting links, go to the Nauset School District website and click on “administration.” Choose the fifth option on the drop-down menu, “superintendent search fall of 2021.”

    SCHOOLS

    Nauset’s Interim Superintendent Brings a ‘Tapestry of Experience’

    Brooke Clenchy hopes to make the position permanent

    By

    About 1,000 miles separate Ontario, Canada, where Brooke Clenchy was born and raised, from the Outer Cape, where she will soon become the Nauset Regional School District’s interim superintendent.

    And there have been many stops along the way, each leading her to where she will land in July.

    Clenchy began her career as a teacher. From 1982 to 1999, she worked at nearly every grade level, offering instruction in English, French as a second language, social studies, arts, instrumental music, and choral music.

    “I wanted to have a positive impact, and I did that as a teacher,” said Clenchy this week. “I thought I could do that as a principal.” So, she made the move to administration.

    Brooke Clenchy will become the Nauset Regional School District’s interim superintendent on July 1. (Photo courtesy Brooke Clenchy)

    After just a couple of years in that role, she was tapped to fill an acting director’s position — the U.S. equivalent of superintendent — overseeing several community schools in her district.

    She enjoyed the role and decided to pursue further opportunities as a top district official. That, coupled with some family connections in Boston, prompted her to venture over the border to take a superintendent’s position in Maine.

    Her ultimate goal was to live and work in Massachusetts. Looking out over Boston from a relative’s Prudential Center apartment, Clenchy remembers thinking, “I really want to live here.”

    In 2008, she made it to Massachusetts via a superintendent’s position in Winchendon and, later, in Ashland.

    Once again, a shoulder tap, this time from the Mass. commissioner of education, took her to a new level. As senior associate commissioner for the Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education, she represented the state in education forums across the country. Ultimately, however, she found that level of government was not for her.

    “I missed the children too much,” Clenchy said. “The environment was so different from school. I didn’t hear the voices and the laughter and the footsteps of the children.”

    So, in 2016, she took the superintendent’s job at the Nashoba Regional School District, serving the towns of Bolton, Lancaster, and Stow, where she has worked for the last five years. Her husband, Kelly, is superintendent of the Littleton Public Schools.

    During the pandemic, the Clenchys have been missing in-person visits with family. Their son, Scott; their daughter-in-law, Julie; and their six-year-old granddaughter, Peyton, live in Toronto. Covid has prevented any trips over the border.

    The position at Nashoba would not allow her to take a month off to safely make the trip once travel was allowed, so she gave her six-month notice during the winter. “I thought, ‘That’s the only way I’m going to be able to do it,’ ” she said.

    Things have worked out well for Clenchy. Not long after her decision to resign, the one-year interim superintendent position at Nauset was advertised.

    Her last day at Nashoba is May 28 and her first day at Nauset is July 1, giving her ample time for a trip to Toronto between jobs.

    “I have a lovely apartment in Hyannis, and I’m packed and ready,” Clenchy said. The couple will keep their home in Lunenburg, and Kelly will continue as Littleton’s superintendent. “It doesn’t make sense to sell the house and shift everything down here for a one-year position,” she said.

    When Nauset begins its search for a long-term superintendent this fall, Clenchy plans to put her name in. “I have every interest in a full-time position,” she said. “I believe I’m the right fit for them. We’ll see if they agree.”

    Meanwhile, she and her husband will spend weekends together. She anticipates many of those will be on the Cape. The couple enjoy the area and have ventured here frequently over the years.

    Chris Easley, chair of the Nauset Regional School Committee, said the current position is for a single year, with a salary of $190,000. Nothing beyond that was discussed during the interview process.

    He and other school committee members liked Clenchy’s “broad range of experience, her energy, and her attitude.” The school system is unusual in that it includes four towns and five different school committees, Easley said. Clenchy has spent her last five years in a regional system.

    Clenchy knows the upcoming year will be challenging, as students resume full in-school learning. Nauset’s youngest students, who were just learning to read this current year, benefited from in-person classes, she said.

    “All the districts are looking at different summer programs, and I think you’ll have a lot of educational arms reach in and help support the children,” she said. “Next year, you’ll see a lot of universal screening, particularly in the elementary level, to help guide teachers toward what they need to focus on.”

    The district is also finishing the design phase for the high school renovation project and will likely put it out to bid in the spring. “The superintendent has input, but the 17-member building committee makes the decisions,” Easley said.

    Clenchy is ready to embrace the challenge, saying her past positions will help her succeed.

    “Every time I made a move, it was definitive of where I wanted to work next,” Clenchy said. “With that has come such a rich tapestry of experience for me to draw from.”

    Passion for the work has motivated her from the beginning. “It’s still what motivates me every single day,” she said. “It’s a commitment and a vocation. I love what I do.”

    Nauset Schools

    By

    Interim Superintendent Chosen

    After a four-hour joint meeting of the Nauset school committees on April 12, Brooke Clenchy, 62, was named Nauset’s interim superintendent to replace Tom Conrad, who is retiring.

    Clenchy was previously superintendent of the Nashoba Regional School District, the Ashland Public Schools, and Winchendon Public Schools. “I feel strongly that I have the skill set you need,” she said in her interview. “Regional school districts are different from single municipalities.”

    She warned that, in the coming year, “we may find ourselves back to some sort of fully remote learning.” But she also said, in the past year, teachers have connected with students remotely in new ways. “I would like to see that translate to our classrooms,” she said. “I think we are on the cusp of something very new.”

    Clenchy was asked about balancing the demands of the job. “I will speak for myself: my balance was lost this year,” she said, adding, “It doesn’t matter in a leadership position. The work has to get done.” —Saskia Maxwell Keller

    SCHOOLS

    Truro Supt. Mike Gradone Will Retire

    A career full of kindness in Outer Cape schools

    By

    TRURO — Over four decades ago, Michael Gradone III accepted a job as the Wellfleet Elementary School principal. In June, Gradone, 73, will retire as superintendent of Truro’s one-school district.

    A soft-spoken, white-bearded figure who looks as much like a child’s image of Santa Claus as is possible, Gradone thus comes to the end of his long Outer Cape school career. He served as the Wellfleet principal for 12 years. And though he has spent the last seven years leading Truro (a district so small that this has been a half-time job), his resume includes five years as the Nauset Regional Schools’ assistant superintendent and then 17 — from 1992 to 2009 — as the district’s superintendent.

    “Mike is iconic on the Cape,” said Brian Davis, the retired principal-superintendent of Truro Central School. Gradone cares about students first, said Davis, and everything else stems from that. The two worked as superintendents side by side for years, then Gradone took over Davis’s position as superintendent in 2014. Stephanie Costigan was promoted to principal last year after Robert Beaudet retired unexpectedly. She will now replace Gradone as superintendent.

    A Harvard graduate and the son of a Newton high school administrator, Gradone decided in college that he wanted to work directly with children. His first job was as a fourth-grade teacher for six years at Hardwick Elementary School. He came to Wellfleet from there.

    Truro School Supt. Michael Gradone III holds a photo of his father, Michael Gradone Jr., as a house master at Newton North High School. It was taken in 1963, when the school’s yearbook was dedicated to him. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    At Hardwick, as he took on some administrative duties, he began to see “ways that great teachers could be brought together to increase their impact on kids,” Gradone said. “And that’s all I had hoped to do as a principal and then as a superintendent.”

    Susan Hall Heinz, now the library and media specialist for the Provincetown Schools, was a student at Wellfleet Elementary School from 1975 to 1979. She remembers Gradone as a “kind, caring, and fair” principal.

    Heinz said she herself was well behaved. “But I remember there were these two boys in the class who were always getting into it,” she said. “He would play the board game Uncle Wiggily with them in his office. I think that made it so he could talk to them about their behavior.”

    Gradone became superintendent of the four-town Nauset district at the same time the Mass. Education Reform Act of 1993 was instituted. With it came the Mass. Comprehensive Assessment System or MCAS exams, including the requirement that all students pass the 10th-grade test to qualify for a high-school diploma.

    Although the high-stakes uses of the MCAS were not popular with teachers (or with test researchers who questioned their statistical validity), Gradone supported the tests, arguing that while they were “far from a perfect measure,” they were “better than no measure.” He won praise for offering a “merit” raise to teachers if scores in the district rose. The outcome was predictable: scores go up when tests shape teaching.

    Gradone’s approach turned out to give the district’s enrollment a boost. Since Nauset’s MCAS scores have annually topped all other Cape districts except for the Sturgis Charter School, school choice has attracted students to Nauset. Today, 24 percent of Nauset High’s population comes from school choice.

    But improvements at the schools, Gradone explained, were “really a cultural change over a period of time and not test scores over two years.” Nauset’s drama club excelled at the same time, and the honors chorus sang at Carnegie Hall. “We wanted to nurture everyone,” Gradone said.

    Amy Kandall, an art teacher at Nauset High School, said Gradone had good ideas. He once asked her to teach a professional development course on the use of art in academic classrooms. This validated her expertise, she said, and also helped teachers who constantly need to take such courses to keep up their certifications and find few options on the Cape.

    “He’s a grandfather figure and a very sweet man,” Kandall said. “He was the rare kind of administrator you could go to with anything.”

    Gradone said he learned a lot about his profession from his father, Michael Gradone Jr. He was a student at Newton North High School while his father was a house master there. He saw that his father cared a lot about his students. Rather than being a bureaucrat, he worked to make a difference in students’ lives. “He was a great role model,” Gradone said.

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