Greenfield High School.
Staff file photo/Paul Franz
GREENFIELD – The School Committee voted unanimously last week to begin its search for a business manager.
The selected candidate will earn an annual salary of up to $130,000, commensurate with qualifications and experience. Although the School Department currently contracts TMS for financial services, the hired candidate will work for the district full time, beginning no later than July 1st.
Margaret Driscoll, administrator of the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials Educator Preparation Program, joined School Committee members last week to discuss the hiring process.
Driscoll suggested that the School Department provide telecommuting options in its compensation package to attract qualified candidates. She noted that the pool of candidates for this position is very limited and that the telecommuting option can be attractive to qualified candidates, especially in a rural area where the employee may live further from his or her hometown. of work.
“It’s not a big pool” like the pool for school bus drivers or any kind of school staff, it’s hard to hire,” Driscoll explained. “If this [candidate] lives a short distance away from you, and let’s say you allow that person to work one day a week or one day every day remotely, it gives them that quiet time to do that real deep work.
When School Committee Vice Chair Stacey Sexton asked if the district could hire a candidate who is not a licensed school business manager on his first day but is otherwise qualified for the role, Driscoll replied that waivers may be signed to accommodate such a candidate. , but that the decision would ultimately be left to the supervisor.
Sexton also explained that the change in hiring a full-time business manager was motivated by a drive to better support students and taxpayers by adopting more efficient financial practices. She said the business manager can help significantly with budgeting.
“It’s really thinking, organizationally, in our structure, how we want to do finance and operations within our district and what we think will make the most sense to maximize the best quality learning for our students versus how we do it. our money,” Sexton said. “I wanted to advocate for having a dedicated staff that is home with us 40 hours a week every week, except when they take vacation, working solely for Greenfield Public Schools and for our students.”
Committee members also discussed the process of forming a search committee to fill the business manager position, delegating School Committee member Elizabeth DeNeeve to the search committee, which will be overseen by Superintendent Karin Patenaude.
In an interview Monday, Patenaude said Assistant Business Manager Vera Ayrapetyan, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Stephen Sullivan and Director of Student Services David Messing will be among the other members of the search committee.
Although Sexton, DeNeeve and Mayor Ginny Desorgher, who also serves on the School Committee, all expressed interest in participating in the search committee, Chairman Glenn Johnson-Mussad explained that if a quorum of School Committee members joins with the search committee, this can complicate the matter by subjecting the search committee to the rules and regulations of the Open Meetings Act.
“One way I could envision us going as a committee is to appoint a member to serve on the search committee and also advise the superintendent on the process based on the values that have been expressed tonight, such as interest in marketing, sharing who we are, our culture and so on,” Johnson-Mussad said. “It’s great to see the initiative and excitement in the case. I think more members involved slows the process down.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.
