The superintendent will make $140,000 to $170,000 a year.
The candidates for superintendent of schools in Holyoke are, clockwise from top left, Natalie Dunning, Sergio Paez and Kimberly Wells.
HOLYOKE — The School Committee is scheduled to appoint a new superintendent from a field of three finalists Wednesday.
"It's the most important decision we will make," committee Vice Chairman Devin M. Sheehan said this week.
The finalists are:
• Natalie B. Dunning, senior administrator of Common Core standards in the Springfield School Department. She is 44 and lives in Chepachet, R.I.
• Sergio Paez, manager of supplemental support services for the Worcester public schools. He is 46 and lives in Leominster.
• Kimberly A. Wells, assistant Holyoke superintendent. She is 40 and lives in Springfield.
Selection of a leader for the school system of 5,800 students and 1,400 employees would cap a nearly seven-month search that began soon after Superintendent David L. Dupont announced in August he would retire when the school year ends in June.
The committee will do public interviews of the finalists on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
After the last interview Wednesday, the committee will vote to fill the job set to pay $140,000 to $170,000 a year. Dupont’s yearly salary is $144,000.
The next superintendent must become a resident here.
All interviews will begin at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria at Dean Technical High School, 1045 Main St., Sheehan said.
Wells will be interviewed Monday, Paez Tuesday and Dunning Wednesday, he said.
A public meet-and-greet time with each candidate will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. the day of their interview, he said.
A screening committee of school employees and people from the community, appointed by the School Committee in December, reviewed 12 applicants and submitted Dunning, Paez and Wells as finalists Feb. 4.
The interviews and appointment come as the search process has been criticized. Some in the community have said parents were excluded.
Hazel Rosario, mother of triplets at Dean, told the School Committee during a public comment period Wednesday she hopes the next superintendent maintains contact with parents.
"We've been working really hard for the well-being of all the children in Holyoke," Rosario said.
Others wanted the School Committee to be considering five finalists instead of only three, and felt that Paul Hyry-Dermith, principal of Peck Full Service Community School, should have been a finalist.
But others said that the schools did try to get parents and others involved and that the screening committee heeded the order of the School Committee, which requested three to five finalists.