Norwich school board to serve as superintendent search committee
Norwich — The Board of Education will research the cost of hiring a superintendent search consultant and on Tuesday appointed the entire nine-member board to serve as the superintendent search committee.
Superintendent Abby Dolliver announced last week that she plans to retire June 30.
The board met for an hour behind closed doors with attorney Anne Littlefield during a special meeting to discuss legal issues related to a superintendent search. After returning to open session, the board voted unanimously to authorize Chairwoman Yvette Jacaruso to research executive search firms and negotiate terms and conditions of a proposed contract and to bring the information back to the full board at an unspecified future meeting.
In a second vote, the board named itself as the superintendent search committee with Jacaruso serving as chairwoman. The committee was tasked with recommending “one or more candidates” for a new Norwich superintendent.
The school board continues to wrestle with a current budget that has a projected deficit of $2 million. Asked how a superintendent search consultant would be funded, Jacaruso and board Vice Chairwoman Joyce Werden said it’s too early to say whether the board will even hire a search firm.
Dolliver, 65, received a positive evaluation last June and was recommended for a 2 percent pay increase, but she declined the raise, keeping her salary at $171,456 this year.
Dolliver was named superintendent in March 2010, after having served as interim superintendent for three months following the mid-year departure of former Superintendent Pamela Aubin. Dolliver had served as director of special education prior to being named interim superintendent and had started her career in Norwich as a school social worker from 1986 to 1999.
After Aubin announced her departure to become Montville school superintendent, the Norwich Board of Education appointed its entire nine-member board to serve as the search committee in December 2009. The board then immediately postponed a formal search process until late spring of 2010, with Dolliver already serving as interim superintendent.
The board canceled the search process entirely in March 2010 and named Dolliver permanent superintendent.
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