The South Orange-Maplewood District is looking to appoint a new principal for Maplewood Middle School at the August 22 Board of Education meeting, according to an email from the district to the MMS community (see the email below).
The district had hoped to have a new principal in place as of the July 18 Board of Education meeting, in the wake of the sudden resignation in June of Principal Jerrill Adams; however, the district announced at that time that it was “re-opening” the search for a new principal.
Assistant Principal Louis Brown has been serving as interim principal in the wake of Adams’ departure. In July, Assistant Principal Marc Gold announced he was leaving for a similar position at Frelinghuysen Middle School in Morristown, NJ.
A district spokeswoman has told the Village Green that the district has attracted several impressive candidates for the principal position. In an email sent to the MMS community on August 3, Assistant Superintendent of Administration Kevin Walston detailed several ways that parents or guardians could be involved in the selection, including attending a “Meet & Greet” with finalists on August 18 (see below for details).
Here is the text of the letter from Walston to the MMS community:
Dear Maplewood Middle School Community,
My name is Kevin L. Walston, Assistant Superintendent of Administration. As part of my responsibilities to the district, I will be leading the interview process for our new principal.
The process will provide for three different ways you can participate (see descriptions of each process below):
- Take our online Leadership Profile survey (available 8/4 through 8/11)
- Attend our community Meet & Greet (the two finalists) in the MMS Library on Thursday, 8/18 from 6:30pm – 8:00pm
- Attend our BOE meeting on 8/22 for principal recommendation
Leadership Profile
We will administer an online survey to help us identify the critical attributes necessary to inform our search in the selection process.
Meet & Greet
This process allows us to identify the candidate with the optimal mix of training, talent, and vision which will assist the Maplewood Middle School Community in addressing the challenges and opportunities which it can reasonably anticipate in the years ahead. The Meet & Greet will allow the members of the community to interact with the candidates, raise questions of interest to them, inform their own impressions of the candidates and further advise the Level II (Superintendent and the Senior Strategic Team) Interview Committee in the recommendation process.
BOE Meeting
Attend our BOE meeting to welcome the finalist on Monday, August 22nd.
Interviewing Committee
During the interviews, each committee member will be expected to thoroughly review each application, ask questions of the applicants and assess the responses from each candidate in an attempt to identify the two finalist to be recommended to Level II. Results from the Leadership Profile and needs of the school community will further inform these recommendations. The level one committee is made up of the following members.
Assistant Superintendent of Administration
Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction
- 2 Parents
- 2 Teachers
- 1 SOMEA Representative
- 1 ASCA Representative
- 1 Assistant Principal
- 1 Social Worker/School Psychologist/Special Education Teacher
