Springfield Superintendent search continues after meeting gets cancelled

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - More controversy has occurred in the search for the next Springfield Public Schools superintendent, and today, the Ad Hoc Committee was supposed to have a meeting discussing their own proposal to have two student representatives on the search committee.

However, not everything went as planned.

The meeting that took place at the Springfield Public Schools offices lasted less than three minutes.

That is because the chair of the Ad Hoc Committee, Chris Collins, was the only person who showed up.

The other two members who were not there were Joesiah Gonzalez and Barbara Gresham.

This particular meeting stems back to last Friday, when Collins announced during a press conference the Ad Hoc Committee would come together to discuss a proposal to add two students to the screening committee when it comes to interviewing the remaining candidates for this position, something Gonzalez has been very vocal and supportive of.

Collins expressed his regret and disappointment on his fellow committee members being absent today, saying, “We all heard, the three of us heard loud and clear, or should have heard loud and clear, the overriding message in the three sessions that we had already is get student input.  There was the other part about whether everybody should be reviewed or not, but the overriding message was to get student input. This was an attempt to do just that.”

We reached out to Joesiah Gonzalez about why he did not show up at the today’s meeting. He has no comment at this time.

So, what happens next?

Collins has already confirmed that he plans to have a reconvening of the Ad Hoc Committee this coming Monday at 5:00 p.m. to discuss this proposal.

He then hopes to have the proposal in front of the whole school committee on Thursday, April 25th.

If passed, the student advisory council would select their two student representatives to be on the screening committee.

For now, however, the drama continues as the school district looks for its next superintendent.