New London — The school board is considering four candidates for the position of interim superintendent and plans to start interviews next week.

Board of Education President Scott Garbini, following a heated closed-door meeting to discuss the candidates with fellow board members, declined to make public the names.

The candidates all have submitted resumes and will be interviewed by the full board next Tuesday and Wednesday. Three were suggestions from board members and one was recommended by retiring Superintendent Manuel Rivera. Board members will have until Friday to add more resumes into the mix.

Garbini appeared flustered after the executive session, in which raised voices could be heard by onlookers from the hallway at central office. He agreed with board member Mirna Martinez that the board is looking for someone to help stabilize the school district during the transition between Rivera’s departure and the hiring of the next superintendent.

Rivera surprised the school board with his retirement announcement last month but has now agreed to remain in the position until an interim is hired and also to stay on for two weeks with the interim to help aid the transition.

An interim superintendent is expected to be in place by the start of the new school season but hopefully sooner, Garbini said.

Garbini announced on Tuesday the appointment of a 12-member search committee to find the district’s next superintendent. The committee will include the seven-member school board and five others chosen by Garbini to represent the school district and public.

The five members from outside the board will include: Kate Fioravanti, Lauren Anderson, Melissa Ford, Tommy Thompson and Elizabeth Sked.

Fioravanti is the interim director of the Arts Magnet Middle School and will represent the administrator’s union in the district. Sked is a teacher at the C.B. Jennings Dual Language and International Elementary Magnet and will represent the teacher’s union. Thompson is the New London High School principal and father of school-age children who will represent parents in the district. Anderson is the chairwoman of the education department at Connecticut College. Ford is a New London native and former school board member in East Lyme.

The makeup of the search committee faced some questions and pushback by school board member Jason Catala, who argued that each of the board members should be able to choose a representative on the committee.

He called the committee “top heavy,” with school staff.

“There was no collaboration with the rest of the board. Scott (Garbini) chose these people,” Catala said. “What about a local community person or two?”

City Republicans, in consideration of the upcoming election in which at least four board members will be replaced, had called for the search committee to be chosen after the election. 

In addition to frustration with the search committee, Catala also said he thought the pool of candidates thus far was too small and the district should look more closely “in house” for people with intimate knowledge of the district, “people like Tommy Thompson and former chief of staff Dr. Miriam Morales Taylor.”

g.smith@theday.com