Cambridge To Kick Off Superintendent Search, With Tentative End Date in October 2025

The Cambridge School Committee has gone six months without a plan to hire a permanent superintendent — but a commitment to officially launch the highly anticipated search next week and a new tentative timeline look to change that.

According to the timeline, presented at a Tuesday meeting, the process will extend into next school year: the committee intends to make an offer to a prospective superintendent by Oct. 15, 2025, and they will take the helm by the following July.

The committee had previously considered timelines that would see superintendents hired by the end of this academic year. But — with most superintendent offers made in December, according to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees — the committee dragged its heels on discussions, running out the clock on having a new hire in place by the summer.

The new timeline answers calls from educators and parents to allow ample time for community engagement. The first test at soliciting input from stakeholders in Cambridge will come at the School Committee’s next meeting on Nov. 19.

Still, the timeline has gaps — such as dates for administering community surveys, forming focus groups, or making an offer to a search firm.

In order to iron out some of these details, committee members will sit on three “working groups,” each focusing on a different area: Outlining community engagement, assembling a profile of the school district to send to search firms, and crafting a leadership profile — essentially, a job description.

The committee said it would finalize assignments for the working group by next week, with three or fewer members sitting on each. By keeping the number of members under four — which would constitute a quorum of the full body — the working groups can likely meet in private under Massachusetts’ Open Meeting Law.

With opportunities for public comment at the upcoming meeting, members braced for more changes to the tentative schedule.

Once committee members are assigned and a timeline is finalized, people will “have something to actually opine about,” committee member Richard Harding, Jr. said.

Committee member Elizabeth C.P. Hudson highlighted the importance of presenting a rough sketch of the search to facilitate initial discussions at the committee’s upcoming meeting.

“People will say, ‘Here are 12 ideas I have,’” Hudson said. “One, they don’t feel heard if we don’t respond. Two, they’ll likely highlight things that we haven’t thought of.”

Harding said the committee needs to prepare for “significant changes” to the search process, given the weight of selecting a new leader.

“This is the biggest thing that we’ll do in the next year,” Harding said. “And I think people are paying attention.”

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com.