Credit: Nadya Chase

The Wayland School Committee votes to hire current Interim Assistant Superintendent Betsy Gavron as the Wayland Public Schools assistant superintendent.

On Wednesday, Feb. 28, the Wayland School Committee voted to hire current Interim Assistant Superintendent Betsy Gavron as the Wayland Public Schools assistant superintendent. Every School Committee member, excluding member Ellen Grieco who was absent from the meeting, voted in favor of hiring Gavron. The final vote was four members in favor of hiring Gavron and zero members opposed to hiring Gavron.

The assistant superintendent search began with a posted job application, which was live for 33 days from Dec. 22, 2023 until Jan. 23. Central Office member Suzanne Kenny facilitated the assistant superintendent search, and according to Kenny, 20 people submitted applications.

Once the applications were submitted, a Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) consisting of a parent-teacher organization (PTO) president, the Wayland teacher’s association (WTA) president, a Wayland High School teacher chosen by the WTA president, a new elementary school principal, a new Wayland High School department head, a human resources (HR) consultant and Fleishman was organized. According to Kenny, because one of the candidates had connections with Wayland Middle School, no WMS representatives were included on the SAC. The SAC also received anti-bias training from Diversity, Equity and Belonging Director Caroline Han before reviewing applications.

The SAC identified overarching themes for qualifications, which Fleishman and a HR consultant then used as guidelines when reviewing all of the applications. Four applicants, all of whom had experience as an assistant superintendent or as a director of a curriculum of instruction, were then selected for initial interviews.

Then, the SAC members each assessed the four applications and interviews holistically and voted on the candidate(s) they thought should move forward. According to Kenny, there was a clear unanimous agreement for the top candidate and weak support for the remaining candidates.

“They did feel that the top choice candidate was far above the others, that the thoroughness of the answers were superior, especially on questions related to collaboration and equity,” Kenny said. “This candidate also brought up important topics that were not mentioned by the other candidates. The consensus was in discussing the other candidates that there really was no second or third candidate who was on a close par with the top candidate.”

After consideration, the SAC recommended to Fleishman that Gavron should be hired, and Fleishman concurred with that recommendation. Based on Fleishman’s recommendation, the School Committee unanimously voted in favor of hiring Gavron.

“When we think of a Central Office team, it’s also being very present in schools, and that’s something [Gavron’s] done daily across the board,” Fleishman said. “It’s a pleasure for me to recommend [Gavron] to the School Committee for the role of assistant superintendent.”