My Turn: L-S School Committee member response on superintendent search

(Editor’s note: This piece was originally submitted to the Lincoln Squirrel as a comment under the January 19 story headlined “L-S superintendent search process stirs controversy” and is being reprinted here for greater visibility. Lincoln resident Harold Engstrom is a member of the L-S  School Committee.)

By Harold Engstrom

Thank you for sharing this view of the L-S screening committee selection process. 

Firstly, the most important thing we are working toward is finding the best possible person to lead Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School as superintendent. That should be obvious, but it can’t hurt to put this out front.

Secondly, the characterization of the makeup of and selection process for the screening committee as “unusual” is not accurate: in open and televised meeting, we asked the head of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, who is also the consultant unanimously chosen by the LSRHS school committee to advise and execute our process, if there was a standard make up and selection process for a screening committee. The answer was no — each committee chooses to do it differently.

LSRHS is under pressure to move quickly to find candidates and screen them. Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) began their process months prior to LSRHS — the decision to definitively begin our process started on Oct. 11, 2022. We decided, in open meeting to have our screening committee be 11 people: one delegate from SPS, one from LPS, two faculty members chosen by the faculty, the L-S special education and METCO administrators, the three subcommittee members, and two committed members with experience from the community. This was transparently discussed. [L-S School Committee members] Ms. Miller and Ms. Endyke-Doren wanted to select alternates in executive session, away from public view, as is their right to suggest. This was voted down by the overall committee.

Secondly, it should be noted that the screening committee is comprised of examples of the best in Lincoln and Sudbury: people who have served their school systems and are fully invested in improving them for the sake of their neighbors, families, and all the students and staff who make up the L-S community. 

I am proud of the transparency and professionalism that MASC, our subcommittee chairperson Kevin Matthews, and the LSRHS school committee in general have exhibited in this process to date. We should all support LSRHS and its elected school committee as we work to land the school’s next leader.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.