MASC consultant wraps community input on Lincoln-Sudbury superintendent search

SUDBURY -- January 12, 2023, Lincoln-Sudbury superintendent search closes input phase with sparse final forum. Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, told a virtual listening session Jan. 12 that 502 people responded to the district's community survey, with 50 percent ranking "ability to interact with students" as the most-wanted skill in the next superintendent-principal, followed by staff recruitment and retention at 39 percent and communication at 38.6 percent. Koocher said Lincoln-Sudbury's combined superintendent-principal role "requires two sets of skills, and not everyone possesses them," and is unusual among roughly 20 active Massachusetts searches. Parent Lisa Friedman urged responsiveness and stronger student-adult connections in a school of about 1,400; Select Board member Jennifer Roberts called for financial literacy and town-meeting fluency. A screening committee will conduct confidential initial interviews before finalists go public.