Qualters principal possible interim Mansfield superintendent choice
Qualters principal possible interim Mansfield superintendent choice
By Donna Whitehead
Mansfield school committee hopes to meet with Qualters Middle School principal Zeffro Gianetti early next week to interview him as a possible interim superintendent.
Following the resignation last week of Superintendent Brenda Hodges, the board met Monday, July 21 to discuss finding an interim superintendent and launching a search for a permanent replacement.
The committee first unanimously voted to accept Hodges resignation.
Hodges submitted her resignation to avoid being a “distraction” amid allegations she plagiarized a commencement speech, according to her letter to the school committee posted to the school district’s website last week.
After discussing an internal versus external interim superintendent, the school board unanimously voted Monday to pursue making an internal candidate the interim.
Three current administrators have superintendent certification – Gianetti, Mansfield High School assistant principal Dawn Stockwell and Jordan/Jackson principal Teresa Murphy.
School committee member Linda Fernando expressed concern that Murphy already has a lot to handle with taking over as sole principal at Jordan Jackson in light of principal Kathleen Podesky’s resignation to take another position.
They agreed Gianetti had the most experience and unanimously voted to invite him in to discuss the job.
Member Kiera O’Neil thanked Trowbridge for the leadership he showed through the recent weeks. Trowbridge in turn thanked the board for its support.
“It’s been a very difficult month for us,” school committee member Lynn Cavicchi said.
Town Manager William Ross, who also attended the meeting offered the selectmen’s support and any assistance the school committee might need.
Trowbridge asked Director of Finance and Operations Edward J. Vozzella to look into costs involved with hiring an interim superintendent.
The committee discussed possibly hiring the Massachusetts Association of School Committees to assist with the search for a permanent replacement for Hodges. They hoped to meet with someone from the MASC to discuss their options.
The board hopes to meet with Gianetti possibly Monday, July 28 or Tuesday, July 29 to discuss the interim position.
Hodges submitted her “resignation with the intent to retire” effective June 30, 2015, a year before her present contract ends in 2016.
In the letter to the school committee, she stated she intends to go out on medical leave for treatment for a “longstanding injury” beginning Aug. 29.
Allegations began circulating on social media last month that Hodges had plagiarized the speech she delivered at the Mansfield High School graduation ceremony on June 8 from a speech delivered by U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven at the University of Texas at Austin in May.
By early July, an online petition was circulating calling for Hodges’ resignation.
Hodges told the Mansfield News, in a story published June 27, that she did not use McRaven’s speech but instead based hers on a speech she’d heard in May 2013 in her home state of Oklahoma. She said she had permission from the author, a pastor, to use that speech.
In her July 16 letter to parents, she said the School Committee verified her version of events.
“The School Committee chair and vice chair have had an opportunity to speak with the author of that speech to discuss the message that he delivered. In addition, they have received an email from him stating that he gave his permission to me to use any thoughts or portions of his message,” she wrote.
She also said the allegedly plagiarized passages appear in many other commencement speeches, as well.