Pending the outcome of contract negotiations, Assistant Superintendent Amy Pasquarello is on track to become Gloucester’s next superintendent after the School Committee voted unanimously to promote her during a meeting Monday night.
The move to promote Pasquarello, who has served as assistant superintendent since October 2022, came after Superintendent Ben Lummis announced plans to retire at the end of this school year.
If all goes accordingly, Pasquarello, a Beverly native, will become the first woman to helm the school district.
“I am truly humbled and deeply honored by the positive feedback and the unanimous vote of support from the School Committee to be the next superintendent,” she said in an email message. “I am eager to continue the important work we have started here in Gloucester, and I am absolutely thrilled to be taking this next step with the community. I look forward to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure the continued success of our students and schools.”
School Committee members spoke about her decade-long experience here and the high esteem in which she has been held as assistant superintendent and former principal of the now defunct East Gloucester Elementary School from 2015-2022.
During her career she has taught fifth grade in Darien, Connecticut, fourth and fifth grades in Charlottesville, Virginia, worked as a media specialist for the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District, and served as an assistant principal in Peabody and the Triton Regional School District.
“She’s a natural leader. I like people who are natural leaders,” School Committee Vice Chair Bill Melvin said.
He and others praised Pasquarello for her work to break the logjam in negotiations during last November’s educators strike by working in small groups alongside Melvin.
“She is also a people person and I think that’s probably the most important attribute of the job,” Melvin said.
“I feel very strongly, having worked with Amy these four years and also having worked with Amy … in the trenches for the two weeks of the strike, that I saw someone under extreme stress … in an extremely difficult situation and with a team that was really feeling the pressure,” School Committee member Laura Wiessen said.
Despite the strike’s pressure, “I watched Amy stay focused and clear on the goal and how to reach the goal.”
School Committee Chair Kathy Clancy said she was proud of the way Lummis “has developed and allowed Amy to grow” as both a principal and a superintendent.
Positive feedback
The evaluation of Pasquarello for the job began nearly two months ago and involved interviews with panels of community members, administrators, parents, educators and staff.
Alicia Mallon, a Massachusetts Association of School Committees field director, helped lead the process, Clancy said.
From surveys compiled by Mallon, Clancy said community members were unanimous when asked if Pasquarello would be successful as the next superintendent.
“Respondents highlighted a range of leadership, experience, relationship, (and) management qualities as the candidate’s key strengths with a widespread positive tone,” Clancy said.
Teachers and staff were also “overwhelmingly positive” Pasquarello would be successful, Clancy said.
A panel of school and city administrators were “overwhelmingly positive with a unanimous ‘yes,’” Clancy said. Students were also a unanimous “yes.”
“They said that the candidate was viewed very favorably, especially in terms of leadership, authenticity and communication,” Clancy said.
Process defended
Longtime School Committee member Melissa Teixeira Prince, who has also served on the Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical High School Committee, said she was hesitant at first with the in-house, single-candidate promotion.
“I thought about the community thinking it was rushed; I thought about transparency and how could we possibly go through this process in the time period that we did knowing that of the eight different processes I’ve experienced hiring a superintendent before were never like this one.”
In the end, she called the process “extremely transparent.”
The School Committee decided in the early fall to move ahead with Pasquarello’s promotion despite the upcoming Nov. 4 city election and the possibility some members might not be re-elected.
Voters decided not to return two incumbents, Jeremy McKeen and Keith Mineo. Mayor Greg Verga, who sits on the School Committee, was unseated by now Mayor-elect Paul Lundberg.
“Having this School Committee make the decision is very important,” Teixeira Prince said. “We’ve worked with Amy. We know the responsibilities of a superintendent, having the experience of being School Committee members … So I am happy that it’s this School Committee making the decision because we’ve earned that right through the years of experience and we have the knowledge and the skills to hire a superintendent.”
Verga also defended the hiring process as open, fair and “not unusual.” About a third of school districts in Massachusetts go this route.
“We’ve got the bird in hand,” he said, “and that in my opinion … has proven her worth to this district.”
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.