DEDHAM ADVANCES SEARCH FOR NEXT SUPERINTENDENT

Community Focus Groups and Survey Planned for September

DEDHAM, MA -SEPTEMBER 15, 2022-  With the upcoming, planned retirement of current Dedham Public Schools Superintendent Michael Welch, the Dedham School Committee would like to ensure that community members, staff and parents are able to contribute their voice to the process of finding the next Superintendent of Schools in Dedham.  The School Committee has engaged the New England School Development Council (NESDEC) to assist in the search process.  NESDEC will help lay the foundation for the search over the next few weeks, gathering insights from virtual and in-person focus group sessions. These sessions, as well as information collected from a two-week survey launching next week, will provide a summary of attributes, experience, and knowledge desired in Dedham’s next superintendent.  Participants in focus groups and survey respondents will also be asked to identify what they believe are tasks which the new superintendent should immediately address.

“We are excited to be working with NESDEC on this process and are very much committed to ensuring that students, families, faculty, staff and community members are able to give voice to the future direction of our public schools,” notes Mayanne MacDonald Briggs, Dedham School Committee member on the sub-committee managing this search process.  “Our District has come so far under the leadership of Superintendent Welch over the past eight years, and we couldn’t be more thankful for his dedication to our school community.  We are committed to finding another great leader to keep us moving forward when it comes to ensuring our students have the best educational experience possible.”

Two virtual focus groups for parents and community members will be held:

• Tuesday, September 27, 2022 

  • 8:30am - 9:30am (parents only) 

  • 7:00pm - 8:00pm (parents/community).  

• Links to these online focus groups are available on the Superintendent Search 2022 page at www.dedham.k12.ma.us/schoolcommittee .

Parents and Community members are also encouraged to participate in-person at Dedham Town Hall on:

• Wednesday, September 28, 2022 at 6:30-7:30pm - Town Hall Room 302

A survey, open to all community members and families interested in providing input, will be conducted from Tuesday, September 20th until October 3, 2022.   The survey can be found online at:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/757ZYJP.   Hard copies of the survey will be available in all school offices, as well as around Dedham at Town Hall and the Dedham Public Library.  

All comments from the online survey will be considered anonymous. NESDEC will organize responses by group (administrators, staff, parents, community members, students, etc.). The responses will be provided to the School Committee in a community needs assessment report later in October.   This report will be used to inform the development of a Successful Candidate Profile, the next step in the process.  Community members and parents will also have an opportunity to apply and be part of the Superintendent Screening Committee, a select group of key stakeholders, who will be tasked with screening and recommending candidates for consideration.  

The latest information, news and more related to the search for Dedham’s next Superintendent of Schools can be found at: www.dedham.k12.ma.us/schoolcommittee on the Superintendent Search 2022 page.   Links to the online Focus Groups and Community survey can also be found on this page.