North Adams School Committee Hears From Superintendent Candidate
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The School Committee completed its first interview of the two finalists for the superintendent's position in the North Adams Public Schools.
Barbara Malkas, superintendent of the Webster Public Schools, spent the day visiting the schools and faculty, and attended a meet and greet with city councilors and other shareholders in the afternoon.
The Clarksburg resident was asked a dozen questions by the School Committee on Monday evening during an interview of just under an hour that will be televised on Northern Berkshire Community Television. A dozen or so members of the general and school community attended the public interview. Committee member Karen Bond was absent and Mayor Richard Alcombright asked the questions in her place.
Malkas was asked about collaboration, strategy, achievement gaps and engagement, and her impression of the school district. She was reminded of a quote by educational research Yong Zhao of Oregon that "education is about the future but based on the past."
"What I see here at the North Adams Public Schools is a real investment in preserving the integrity of the education that's been provided through generations," she said in her opening statements, pointing to the way technology has been integrated into new Colegrove Park Elementary School that still displays its century-old heritage.
"There is that nice marriage of the idea we will honor our past but really look to the future."
Malkas said she believed strongly that a good education was integral in the community's economic infrastructure. Without pathways to success, children would not be able to achieve their potential — and might continue "living in their parents basement."
Her own education, and her mother's insistence on the effort to make it happen, afforded her and her sister opportunities they might not otherwise have.
The United States, said Malkas, offers the privilege of education to all students in a way that allows them to rise to the levels they can achieve, while other nations often determine the child's path to college, vocational or work at a certain age.
However, she said it was important to educate parents and guardians that dropping out of school to work is no longer a viable path. Even the military requires a high school diploma. Rather, educational institutions should be continuously sending the message that academic efforts pay off.
Malkas said students need to be told: "I believe in you, I can help you, you will be successful." Part of that was done in Webster by creating a ninth grade academy through Title 1 funds and reallocating resources for dropout prevention.
She pointed to the number of committee and organizations she's involved with as proof of her ability to form useful partnerships and collaborations, including educational collaboratives for Central Massachusetts and south Worcester, and the Drug Abuse Treatment Options Coalition.
Like many communities, Webster is trying to grapple with the opiod epidemic and seven elementary children lost parents to drug overdoses last summer. The Central Massachusetts Special Education Collaborative, of which she is a member, opened a high school last year specifically for recovering student addicts. Malkas said she had also tried for grants for in-school programs, brought opiate-antidote Narcan into the schools, and envisioned similar efforts along with a health and wellness program for North Adams.
She also touched on working with in-school assessment data as a way to better track achievement, and would rely on some of the community engagement techniques she used in Worcester, including communicating the good things happening in the schools through social media and other outreach efforts.
Malkas said any strategic plan had to be multiyear, be participatory and have continuous goals, as she has done in Webster.
"When I created those goals, they became my performance goals so I was very invested in them," she said.
In both her closing and opening remarks, Malkas focused on the fact that the Berkshires was still her community, even though she works in Webster.
"I feel very strongly that I would have the skill set to help my neighbors, my community, to grow and become an educational system that really supports the entire community going forward," she said.
The committee will interview Stephen Donovan, superintendent of the Acushnet School District, on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers. The interview is open to the public. The committee anticipates making a decision on Wednesday night. The next superintendent would replace James Montepare, who is retired but has stayed on in an interim capacity.
Tags: candidate interviews, North Adams School Committee, superintendent,
