Current East Longmeadow High School principal Michael Knybel will take a job in Lenox.
East Longmeadow Town HallEAST LONGMEADOW - The school district has begun the process of looking for a new East Longmeadow High School principal after the current principal Michael Knybel decided to leave the district for a position with the Lenox Public Schools.
Superintendent of Schools Gordon C. Smith said he would like to have three finalists by early June and make a decision by the week of June 21.
"It is an aggressive time-line, but I think it can be done," he said during the School Committee meeting Monday night.
The School Committee voted to appoint members Richard L. Freccero and Elizabeth Marsian- Boucher to a preliminary principal search committee. The committee also voted to appoint School Committee Chairman Gregory Thompson to a smaller committee that will make site visits to the finalists schools and give the final recommendation to Smith, who will hire the principal.
Smith recommended that the committee follow South Hadley's lead and have the three finalists interviewed by the search committee as well as the general public.
School Committee member Joseph Cabrera said he approves of this idea.
"I think some parents were upset with how things went before and they would like to know what they are getting this time," he said.
The School Committee also voted 4-1 not to accept the School Choice program for the 2011-2012 school year. Cabrera gave the opposing vote.
Members cited current class size issues at Birchland Park Middle School and the high school as reasons not to participate in the program.
Smith said he also believes many school districts become reliant on the money they get from School Choice.
"Once you get used to that money as a budget booster it is hard to get away from that," he said.
Freccero, who voted against allowing School Choice, said he is fundamentally opposed to the program because it takes funds away from struggling and less wealthy school systems.
"It's a case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer," he said referring to the fact that many School Choice students leave urban school districts. The district then has to pay to send the child to their chosen school.