Waltham School Committee Plans Site Visits For Two Superintendent Finalists

The Waltham School Committee plans to do site visits for two of the three finalists for superintendent. 

The committee, during an 8 a.m. meeting at , unanimously voted to schedule site visits to the current jobs of finalists  of Lynnfield and . The vote does not include doing a site visit for the third finalist, Paul Schlichtman, of Arlington, but it does not prevent the group from performing one later. 

The committee also voted to choose a new superintendent during a 7 p.m. meeting on Monday, March 21 at the high school. 

During the site visits, the committee or its representatives will speak with officials at Polito’s job as the Athol-Royalston Regional school superintendent, and Nicholson’s job as the assistant superintendent of the Andover Public Schools. 

The visits will be scheduled for Thursday, March 17 or Friday, March 18, according to Glenn Koocher, the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, which is assisting with the search. 

The Waltham Public Schools are looking to replace former superintendent Peter Azar, who resigned last year after a dispute with the school committee. Assistant Superintendent For Administration Anne Marie Carr-Reardon has been managing the district in the interim.

Speeding up the search process pushed the committee to schedule site visits for this week. Since Nicholson is a finalist for a job in an unnamed community, the group agreed it needed to expedite the search so as not to lose finalists to another job. Koocher also said Schlichtman is a finalist to become the superintendent of the Winthrop Public Schools.

While no final decision was made on whom to hire, several committee members gave hints of their preferences. Committee member Susan Burstein said she liked both Nicholson and Polito. 

“We have two strong choices for somebody to lead the system,” she said.