WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School District and Superintendency Union 71 on Tuesday approved the creation of an assistant superintendent position to replace the Tri-District's director of pupil personnel services.

 

The Tri-District is the umbrella under which the regional junior-senior high school and SU-71 — a collaboration of the Williamstown and Lanesborough elementary school districts — share a central administration.

 

The Mount Greylock School Committee Tuesday hosted a joint meeting with representatives from the two elementary school committees who serve on the SU-71 panel.

 

First-year Tri-District Superintendent Douglas Dias pitched the creation of the new position as one of several proposed changes to the central office and asked that the committees appoint current Director of PPS Kim Grady to the new post.

 

In a lengthy executive session that followed Dias' public presentation, the committees concurred with Dias' recommendation for the assistant superintendent post, but they put off approval of the rest of the plan until next month. The SU-71 committee voted 4-0 to approve Grady's title change. The vote of the Mount Greylock committee was 5-1 in favor with Chris Dodig voting against; committee member Wendy Penner did not attend Tuesday's meeting.

 

Prior to the executive session, Dias explained that the title change would better reflect the responsibilities he wants to assign to Grady. As director of PPS, her primary focus was on special education, which will continue to be a big part of her job as assistant superintendent.

 

"Some districts call it the assistant superintendent for student services, some say straight assistant superintendent," Dias said. "The way the position currently is and I'd envision it to be is a little broader than just special education and student support.

 

"In some places, they can be more holistic, which in many ways is what I'm envisioning here. But this [position] is student services heavy. I wanted to give a title that is accurately reflecting what I expect the position to be."

 

During the public portion of the discussion, Dodig asked Dias whether there was a "rule of thumb" when it came to deciding how large a school district should be before it needs an assistant superintendent.

 

Mount Greylock School Committee member Richard Cohen noted that student population is just one factor; the number of schools and the complexity of the administrative structure also come into play. Part of an effort a few years ago to look at a K-through-12 region was the notion that the Tri-District structure is cumbersome for administrators.

 

Tri-District Chairwoman Regina DiLego — also the chairwoman of the Lanesborough School Committee — said it was important to keep in mind that Dias was not suggesting that.

 

Dias came to the Tri-District committee with four proposed changes to the central office structure. In addition to Grady's title change, he asked that the committees fill a currently vacant curriculum director post and add to that job description, change the title of compliance monitoring assistant to student services coordinator and create a facilities coordinator post that would oversee facilities issues at all three Tri-District facilities.

 

The third piece is that Dias has argued for at past School Committee meetings in light of recent infrastructure failures at Williamstown Elementary School. He has suggested that a point person could keep an eye on the big picture and help avoid problems like those that forced two school closures earlier this academic year at Williamstown.

 

Initially, Dias is suggesting the facilities coordinator position be created as a 16 hours per week (or .4 full-time equivalent) post.

 

The reinstatement of the curriculum coordinator position, which Mary MacDonald vacated in 2013 to take over as principal of Mount Greylock, would continue to align the curricula of the junior-senior high school's two feeder elementary schools. Dias recommends the position also be expanded and renamed the director of curriculum, instruction and technology.

 

That part raised a concern for Cohen, who questioned whether that was too large a job description for one person.

 

"That's an excellent question," Dias said. "I could break it into two separate full-time positions. But I took into account the fiscal landscape.

 

"I've seen similar positions before. Finding the right person is not going to be easy, but I feel it's important to find someone who will meet these criteria. The idea is to have someone who knows where to go and can bring in and collaborate with the talent we have — not only in the schools but the community as well.

 

"We're looking for a leader to work with the good people we have and the principals and support them."

 

After the Tri-District meeting, the Mount Greylock School Committee held its regular monthly meeting, during which it covered topics ranging from the relationship between curriculum and budgeting to the upcoming town votes on the proposed addition/renovation project.

 

On the former, Cohen pressed the administration to involve the school committee more about educational priorities for the school as it develops a budget for fiscal 2017 and beyond.

 

Cohen emphasized the committee's statutory role in the education of students at the school and said that drawing a straight line between educational priorities and the budget will help the district win voters' approval of its budget.

 

School Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Greene agreed.

 

"This is very important," Greene said. "When we come down to a budget crunch and have to make decisions ... we need to have a context to put it in."

 

On the school building project front, the committee discussed the coming town votes and the possibility the Lanesborough Board of Selectmen will schedule a special town meeting ahead of a ballot vote to decide the debt-exclusion question.

 

Greene reiterated that the building project's budget — set for final approval by the Massachusetts School Building Authority next week — is locked in and cannot change before the towns vote. And the sooner the towns vote, the sooner the project can begin and be bonded at currently advantageous interest rates.

 

School Committee member Steven Miller picked up on that point in a prepared statement he read, directing it at Lanesborough officials.

 

"If there are concerns or issues, I can attest that these committees are open to discussion, but, as Carrie Greene said last week, time is money," Miller's statement read in part. "Many people have worked hard for years on this, and we have had many votes in both towns which, time and again, overwhelmingly support the project and the region."

 

In other business on Tuesday, the Mount Greylock School Committee heard an udpate from MacDonald about recent accomplishments at the school.

 

She highlighted Tuesday's opening of Mount Greylock's MakerSpace and a new initiative that will allow students from Mount Greylock — and other North County high schools — to enroll in a computer programming course through the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts