By Carol Britton Meyer

School committee members this week established a draft timeline for hiring the next Hull Public Schools superintendent, with a selection expected to be made by the end of January and a start date of July 1. Current Superintendent Judith Kuehn is retiring at the end of the school year.

The New England School Development Council, based in Marlborough, has been hired to facilitate the search at a cost of $13,760. The final decision rests with the committee.

Member Kyle Conley and other school officials are working closely with NESDEC with the goal of leading “a very intentional and thorough search for our next superintendent – someone who is fabulous, although not as fabulous as [Kuehn] – and who will continue her great work,” she said. “We want to be sure we have a clear, transparent, and inclusive process. There will be lots of opportunities for stakeholders to weigh in, including teachers, administrators, staff, custodians, students, parents, and other members of the community.”

As part of the process, the job will be posted and recruitment for the position will begin in October or November, a timeline approved, a screening committee appointed, and a salary established. The deadline to submit an application for the position in Nov. 27.

The tentative timeline:

⦁ Mid-October: In partnership with the school committee, NESDEC will conduct focus groups with administration, staff, parents, and other community members as part of a community needs assessment, to develop a candidate profile.

⦁ By Oct. 30: Screening committee members will be recruited and selected.

⦁ End of November, early December: The screening committee will review procedures, develop interview questions, set the interview schedule, review applications received, and distribute application packets.

⦁ Mid- December: Preliminary interviews of selected candidates will be conducted; the screening committee will determine which candidates to recommend to the school committee.

⦁ Around Dec. 18: Finalists will be announced and interviews with these candidates conducted Jan. 10-19.

It has not yet been decided whether visits to finalists’ districts will be part of the process.

Chair David Twombly urged anyone interested in the process to get involved now.

“Don’t sit on the sidelines,” he said. “We want to be sure a lot of people attend the upcoming meetings and give their opinions. This is an exciting time, and while we certainly don’t want to lose Judy, we can embrace the change and go from there.”

In other business at the meeting:

Kuehn provided a progress report on phases one and two of the school reconfiguration process. “I’m happy to say that phase one was incredibly successful because of the commitment of the leadership team and everyone, including our custodians, who worked so hard to get this project done,” she said.

Under phase one, Pre-K through grade 6 students are attending classes at Jacobs Elementary School, grades 7 and 8 at Memorial Middle School, and grades 9 through 12 at the high school for the current school year.

Phase two, once granted final approval by the school committee, would implement the final reconfiguration, where Jacobs School would house grades PreK to 7 and the high school, grades 8 to 12, beginning with the 2024-25 school year.

“On to phase two!” Kuehn said, noting that the new HPS theme is “Stronger Together – Hull Pirate Pride.”

At the end of the meeting, the committee held an executive session related to the lawsuit against the town by former Superintendent Michael Devine. The select board also was scheduled to discuss the lawsuit in closed session this week.

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