School Department Closer to Naming New Stoughton High Principal

After conducting three site visits with candidates for Stoughton High School principal, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marguerite Rizzi said Wednesday night that a decision on who the next principal will be is close to being made, but she is not ready to announce it to the public at this time.

With O’Donnell Middle School principal Wayne Hester retiring at end of this school year and Stoughton High principal Matthew Colantonio becoming principal at the OMS next school year, there is a vacancy in the top post at SHS.

What started as a for the position has now been narrowed to three site visit finalists. 

Deputy Superintendent Jonathan Ford said there was a "remarkable field" of candidates when addressing the School Committee on March 13. 

Site visits to the candidate's current schools were conducted at the end of last week and the beginning of this week (March 15, 16 and 19). 

Ford places a high level of importance on a site visit.

"Anyone can have a great interview or tell you what you want to hear," he said.

Ford said one of the benefits of the site visit is that it gives him a chance to see what each candidate's actual vision is and which of the candidate's achievements is the result of this vision or simply the result of administrative policy already in place.  

Final interviews will be conducted with one or more of these site visit finalists and then a contract offer will be made. 

Dr. Rizzi said the process of finding the next principal has been done with a "high level of scrutiny."

She told the School Committee on March 13 that there is a "good chance" the search for a principal may be complete by the Committee's next meeting on March 27.