School board set to shuffle administrators

Woonsocket School Committee will address changes to principal posts

WOONSOCKET – The School Committee will seek to address a number administrative changes and vacancies in time for the new school year when the panel meets Wednesday evening in the Hamlet Middle School beginning at 7 p.m.

The meeting’s agenda includes discussion/approval on the appointment of a principal for the Kevin K. Coleman Elementary School in Fairmount, similar action a for a Hamlet middle school building principal and assistant principal, the Villa Nova middle school building assistant principal, action on the appointment of a Gov. Aram J. Pothier/Citizens’ Memorial Elementary School principal, and an assistant principal for Pothier/Citizens’.

The panel will also consid- er the appointments of two special education chairs, one for the high school and one for the middle school, and consider approval of the addition of two non-budgeted, speech-language positions for the coming year.

All of the administrative actions are recommended by School Superintendent Patrick McGee.

When contacted on Monday about the number of administrative posts being filled this year, School Committee Chairman Soren Seale said some of the actions are related to the non-renew of existing principals and also to moves within the district and the addition of new administrative posts.

The middle school appointments are due in part to the committee’s earlier decision to separate the middle school’s administration,

previously under one princi- pal, into separate principals at the two buildings on the middle school campus, Hamlet and Villa Nova, according to Seale. Each school also has an assistant principal to serve with its principal.

Mark Thompson was not renewed as principal for the coming year and that is one of the vacancies to be filled come Wednesday, Seale said.

Danielle Costa, the principal at Pothier/Citizens, has applied for one of the middle school administrative post and her appointment would in turn create the need for a new Pothier/Citizens principal, Seale said.

An assistant principal is also up for appointment at that school, he said.

The Coleman Elementary appointment is related to the school department’s bid not to renew Coleman Principal Celeste Conti, who had been named to that position for the 2016-2017 school year. Conti’s non-renewal is under appeal as is the school department’s bid not to renew veteran city elementary administrator Karen MacBeth, a former state leg- islator for Cumberland and principal of the Harris Elementary School.

Conti’s appeal is being heard this week, according to Seale.

While some of the appointments still appear undecided at the moment, Seale said all are expected to be resolved for the start of the new school year.

“That is one of the reasons we have our pedal to the medal,” Seale said of the committee’s planned schedule for meetings before the start of school.

“We will have all of our 12 month administrative employees in place for the start of school,” he said.

The school department should have most of its 10month administrative posts filled as well, he added.

As for why so many administrative changes are occurring this year, Seale said he really didn’t have a good answer to that question.

“It’s just there unfortunately. It wasn’t programmatic, it’s just the way it unfolded,” he said.