School committee holds roundtable to finalize questions and materials ahead of public superintendent interviews

The Cambridge School Committee convened a roundtable on Sept. 29 to review materials and prepare for public finalist interviews in the district’s superintendent search.

Mayor Akorn, who opened the meeting as president of the committee, said the session was a working meeting to synthesize information gathered during the search and to discuss “what sort of things resonated with you” from candidate visits and community feedback. Dr. Turek, the search facilitator, walked members through assembled materials spanning application packets, community focus groups, a Donovan Group survey (439 respondents), July interviews, an August performance task, and recent listening sessions.

Miss Weeks Bradley of the equity process summarized the values and themes committee members should weigh, including authentic family engagement, transparency, and instructional leadership. Weeks Bradley said the equity team had provided confidential candidate files and a rubric for evaluating the performance tasks. "We created the value list based on the feedback that was given to the school committee," she said.

The committee recessed for small-group report-outs and then heard summaries from each team about site visits to Revere, Boston, and Cambridge. Member Weinstein moved to extend the meeting 15 minutes to allow remaining discussion; Vice Chair Hunter seconded, and a roll-call vote passed the extension unanimously by recorded 'yes' votes.

Dr. Turek told members to expect a compiled and updated set of 20 interview questions to be circulated before the public interviews scheduled for the next evening. The committee adjourned after recognizing staff and equity-process contributions.