Wiscasset Middle High School

Mon, 10/05/2015 - 04:32 pm

SUSAN JOHNS, Assistant Editor

Wiscasset Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot. File photo

Wiscasset Middle High School’s (WMHS) next principal could be named Thursday night, Oct. 6. A special meeting of the school committee has been set for 6 p.m. in the WMHS library.

The agenda lists a closed-door negotiations session followed by a nomination of a WMHS principal in open session.

In an email Monday, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said the 15 candidates who applied for the job had been narrowed to two still in the running.

A cut from 15 candidates to 10 was made using themes stemming from results of the school department’s recent anonymous survey of the school and community. Eighty people took part in the survey, according to Wilmot’s email response to questions from the Wiscasset Newspaper on Oct. 5.

The themes from the survey included knowledge of middle and high school level needs; experience in the classroom, administration and the proficiency-based education Wiscasset is moving to; engaging with the community; valuing arts and athletics; and being open to feedback.

The 10 candidates who made the first cut moved onto interviews with an advisory committee; Wilmot, other administrators, teachers and support staff and a student comprised the panel, Wilmot writes.

Prior to those interviews, two student council members took the 10 candidates on tours of the school, the email continues.

After the interviews, two candidates were picked to move forward in the process, Wilmot writes. Each then chose a technological medium such as PowerPoint, YouTube or Google Chat to prepare a remote-based presentation for the advisory committee.

The presentations were supposed to cover why the candidate is the top candidate to lead Wiscasset Middle High; who they are as a person and what being a leader means to them; why Wiscasset; and one other prompt: “How are you going to connect with parents and students to revitalize our school?”

After both candidates completed their presentations, Wilmot and another administrator interviewed each of the two again.

“Once a finalist has been selected, a name will be presented to the school committee for a vote,” Wilmot writes. Thursday’s special school committee meeting was announced Tuesday morning. Attempts to reach Wilmot for comment were not immediately successful.

WMHS Principal Cheri Towle recently resigned to become Brewer’s superintendent of schools. Her last day of work in Wiscasset is Oct. 23.