By Carol Britton Meyer

The school committee this week discussed the process for the hiring of an assistant principal at the Jacobs Elementary School, which will include a recommendation from a search committee.

Last summer, Assistant Principal Kyle Shaw was named principal, replacing Christine Cappadona when she moved out of that role to become director of curriculum and assessment districtwide. He will remain in that position during both phases. Jacobs’ Interim Assistant Principal Elaine Menice will stay until the end of the school year, and the new assistant principal will start July 1, and will be in place as the school district begins consolidating the structure of grades from three buildings into two.

The school committee previously voted 4 to 1 to take the first step, housing pre-K through 6 at Jacobs Elementary School, grades 7 and 8 at Memorial Middle School, and grades 9 through 12 at the high school, for the 2023-24 school year.

This means that for that school year, fifth-graders who would normally move on to the middle school will remain at the Jacobs. The final reconfiguration will have the Jacobs School housing grades preK to 7 and the high school grades 8 to 12, starting with the 2024-25 school year.

“During phase one, the 2023-24 school year, there will be one assistant principal,” Superintendent of Schools Judith Kuehn explained. “During phase two, from the 2024-25 school year and the years going forward, there will be two assistant principals, one upper school assistant principal and one lower school assistant principal.”

The new Jacobs assistant principal is expected to be appointed by April 14.

Also this week, committee members Liliana Hedrick and Kyle Conley suggested this week the formation of a subcommittee of the school committee to be involved with how the middle school will be repurposed, as outlined in the MARS Best Educational Use of School Facilities report.

However, committee member David Twombly recalled Town Manager Philip Lemnios mentioning earlier that a subcommittee or an ad hoc committee would be formed to include school committee, advisory board, and select board members and others. Kuehn also recalled that conversation.

“It’s important to maintain a connection between the school committee and the final decisions that will be made across the town regarding how the space will be used,” Conley said. “I don’t anticipate this being a heavy lift, but there needs to be somebody keeping an eye on the use of that space.”

If it’s decided to move some town services to the middle school, a memorandum of understanding would be crafted between the Hull Public Schools and the town, which is a key component of the final outcome.

Kuehn recently spoke with Lemnios about creating a draft agreement, but there are no details yet to share, she told the school committee Monday night.

While understanding of Conley and Hedrick’s intent, Chair Stephanie Peters expressed concern about creating such a subcommittee with the planned retirement of Lemnios at the end of June and a number of seats to be decided on both the school committee and select board in the May town election.

“This is kind of a weird time,” she said.

It was decided after some back and forth that the school committee would ask the advisory board for its thoughts when the two committees meet to discuss the proposed FY24 school budget on March 27.

“That will be the first step,” Peters said.

School committee member Ernest Minelli said that while the “dynamics are unique,” this is an opportunity “to continue the progress we have made as a committee in taking the lead and making this an affirmative process for student learning. If we can keep that momentum going throughout all the different decisions that will be made, we will be in great shape.”