Gill-Montague School Committee Interviews Superintendent Candidate Remotely During Pandemic

GILL — March 24, 2020 — Gill-Montague School Committee interviewed a superintendent candidate remotely as district buildings closed for COVID-19. The committee questioned Mary Jane Rivero, then serving as superintendent in Maynard, via videoconference on March 24, with committee members Haley Anderson, Thomas Hina Hall, and community representative Cassie Domkiller among those posing questions. Rivero, a Springfield native, described a "tribe board" model she launched in Maynard that brought together the finance committee, selectboard, and town administrator three times yearly, and said she had successfully resolved a labor contract dispute headed for arbitration within two weeks of arriving at a prior district. She acknowledged a failed rollout of Universal Design for Learning at a career-technical school, saying she lacked sufficient stakeholder buy-in — a lesson she said took three years to reverse. The committee planned to deliberate the following evening.