Two finalists named in HPS supt. search; additional interviews scheduled for early January

December 22, 2021 By Carol Britton Meyer

The School Committee discussed the four finalists in the search for a new school superintendent Tuesday night and narrowed it down to Dr. Margaret Adams (current assistant superintendent of the Melrose Public Schools) and Dr. Scott Carpenter  (current superintendent of the Monomoy Regional School District).

The other finalists were Dr. Jennifer Curtis, current Executive Director of South Shore Stars and former Superintendent of Weymouth Public Schools and Dr. Andrea Schwamb, current assistant superintendent of the Wareham Public Schools.

"We feel very fortunate to have four strong choices," School Committee Chair Kerry Ni told the Hingham Anchor following the meeting.

In addition to the public interviews last week, several members of the committee -- along with Interim Supt. of Schools Gary Maestas -- took the candidates on a tour around the district to all six schools.

 "The candidates also met with student groups, the leadership team, central office staff, school staff, and PTO presidents and concluded their visits with the public interviews with the School Committee," Ni said. "We are grateful to the staff and community members who provided their perspectives on the candidates. The School Committee also conducted extensive reference checks and spoke to many people in the candidates' districts.”

Due to Open Meeting laws, each School Committee member gathered information independently, which means that Tuesday night was their first opportunity to share their findings “to get the clearest possible picture of the candidates,” according to Ni.

Each candidate was discussed during the meeting, after which the Committee named Adams and Carpenter as the finalists in the search.

Because the committee would like to learn more about these two candidates, one-hour interviews with each will be conducted Tuesday, Jan. 4, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The committee will then deliberate on Wednesday, Jan. 5, at 6 p.m. Both of those meetings will take place on Zoom and will be posted public meetings on the town website.

“Following our discussions,  we are confident that either candidate would make a good superintendent, so it is now our task to determine who will be best for Hingham at this moment, given all of our strengths, challenges, and our vision for the future of the district,” Ni said.