After the abrupt resignation of former Superintendent Astein Osei, the Park school board worked quickly to find an interim superintendent to fill the role for the rest of the academic year.
On Sept. 27, the school board voted to confirm Dr. Kate Maguire to the position of interim Superintendent, where she will remain until the end of the 2023-24 school year.
Although she will be new to Park, Dr. Maguire is not new to being an interim superintendent. According to school board chair Anne Casey, when vetting Dr. Maguire, her past experience played a large role.
“I was super impressed with everything that people said about her,” Casey said, “Her experience as an interim (superintendent) just last year in a very large district is really going to be helpful for us.”
School board vice chair Colin Cox said he was glad to see such a high level of engagement when interviewing Dr. Maguire at the recent open board meeting.
“One of the things that you could see was how involved our board was in asking questions and getting more details from Dr. Maguire,” Cox said. “I think that speaks well to how we were trying to really understand Dr. Maguire and her motivations for this role.”
According to school board director Virginia Mancini, filling the superintendent vacancy, even just on an interim basis, is crucial for the district as a whole.
“As a classroom teacher, I know how critical it is to have leadership in place,” Mancini said. “I know how important it is for us to feel like we are a stable ship.”
After interviewing Dr. Maguire, Cox said he believes her values are well aligned with the district’s and she will be a great person to fill the role of superintendent.
“The answers we got from Dr. Maguire were convincing that she would be the appropriate person for this situation,” Cox said. “We needed to get somebody into this role quickly, and she was driven by key things. It wasn’t superficial. She was really getting to (deeper) things like our racial equity plan.”
When discussing next steps, Mancini said the board will follow a similar process to past years when hiring a new superintendent.
“The last time we hired a superintendent, it was a really rigorous process where we not only engaged with staff, but also with students, family members and community members,” Mancini said. “We’ll do that again. It’s important to all of us board members that we get as much community input as we can to hire the next (superintendent).”
