School Committee Vice Charwoman Stephanie Pick said the committee was impressed by Salzer's skills in a wide variety of areas.
NORTHAMPTON – The new school superintendent in waiting said Friday he can hardly wait to take over a job he’s been preparing himself for all his professional life.
Brian Salzer, the interim superintendent of the Marblehead Public Schools, was unanimously selected by the School Committee Thursday to fill the post vacated by Isabelina Rodriguez. For Salzer, 43, it will be his fifth administrative post in the last two years.
Salzer was selected from a field of four finalists. The others were Irwin H. Sussman, superintendent of the Haldey-Luzerne Central School District in upstate New York; Ruth Miller, the acting superintendent of the Narragansett Regional School District in Templeton; and William Collins, the principal of the William E. Norris School in Southampton.
The committee has settled on two finalists in march by started the search all over again after it came to light that one of them, Daniel J. Hanneken, was not the principal of a Marlborough middle school as his resume indicated. Sussman was the other finalist in that round. The most recent finalists traveled to Northampton this month for interviews and to meet faculty and parents.
“He has great energy,” said School Committee Vice Charwoman Stephanie Pick. “He’ll be a great catch for Northampton.”
Pick said the committee was impressed by Salzer’s skills in a wide variety of areas he will deal with as superintendent. She was also pleased, she said, that the vote was unanimous. School Committee member Lisa Minnick said Salzer projected an air of calm during his interview.
“When he spoke of process is always involved listening to people and making sure everyone was involved,” she said. “I think that works in Northampton.”
Salzer said he had been on the phone all morning Friday, receiving congratulations, sharing the news and coordinating with Northampton to set up a time for contract negotiations. The superintendent’s job was advertised at $122,000 to $140,000 a year. Salzer said he will likely negotiate with the city on either June 30 or July 5.
Should Salzer assume the post, it will be his fifth school administrative post since 2009, when he left his job as principal of New South High School to become principal of Swampscott High School. He was at Swampscott High School for less than a year when he was hired away by Marblehead to be that school system’s business manager. That move resulted in controversy when it came to light that the Marblehead school superintendent offered Salzer a contract that paid $22,000 more than the town’s school committee had authorized. The committee subsequently rejected the contract, but Salzer was retained as business manager. In March of this year he was named interim superintendent for the Marblehead schools.
Although he effectively took a pay cut to remain in Marblehead, Salzer said he has no regrets about the move.
“I wanted the opportunity to learn,” he said. “Money doesn’t buy happiness. Job satisfaction is what makes happiness.”
A Wisconsin native who began his career in that state, Salzer said his trip to Northampton earlier this month evokes memories of Madison, the state capital, where the university affects the vibe.
“It felt like going back home,” he said.
Told that the local teachers union has been invoking Wisconsin in a negative manner, claiming the city is engaged in “union busting,” Salzer said he did not know enough about the contract situation to comment on it.
An avid runner who completed his first marathon in May, Salzer expects to be pounding the pavement on the city streets. Most of his energy, however, will be focused on increasing achievement in the schools, he said.
“I want to help make the Northampton public schools into what we believe they can be,” he said.