Residents ask Holliston School Committee to add DEI‑focused reviewer to superintendent screening team

Angela Page, representing Diverse Holliston, told the Holliston School Committee during public comment that nearly 100 community members signed a petition asking the district to add at least one screening‑team member whose sole responsibility would be to assess superintendent candidates through a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) lens.

The petition, read aloud by Page, asked the committee to “strengthen the superintendent's search and long‑term district leadership” by including a member with training, experience or lived expertise in evaluating leadership through an equity lens. Page said the request was meant to improve transparency and ensure ongoing dialogue beyond the immediate search.

Community members who followed Page at the microphone echoed the request and urged the committee to move from aspirational statements about equity to concrete practices, including explicitly using the district’s 2022 equity audit to guide decisions. “We’ve paid for [the equity audit], and we’ve asked you to use it,” said one commenter, urging specific rubrics and questions to evaluate candidates.

Chair Sarah responded that the district has already built equity considerations into the screening process: the committee selected HYA, a firm it said has an equity‑focused history; the job posting was shared on job boards with diversity reach; and the screening team includes the district’s director of social and emotional learning and equity. Sarah said the search has relied on more than 40 hours of interviews and more than 600 survey responses from the community to create the candidate profile.

The committee acknowledged community concerns about whether a single staff member can fully represent DEI priorities and said it would continue to listen while moving the search forward. As part of the process update, the committee approved a broadly worded community update and voted to authorize Chair Sarah to distribute finalists’ names and bios, as provided by the screening team and after candidates accept, so the public can review recorded finalist interviews and submit feedback surveys.

The committee did not make a further change to the screening‑team membership during the meeting but committed to additional transparency about finalist visits, public interviews and survey opportunities. The search timeline presented at the meeting foresees screening interviews followed by finalist site visits and recorded evening interviews with the public prior to a final decision.

The committee will share updates and exact dates to the public when confirmed.