HARVARD — The search to replace Bromfield Principal Thomas Hall, who is retiring at the end of the school year, is underway, and Superintendent of Schools Thomas Jefferson has set an ambitious timetable to wrap up the process by March.
But one aspect of his agenda drew questions from the School Committee Monday night. Why, asked board member Mark Hardy, did Jefferson decide to conduct the search in-house rather than hire a consulting firm?
Jefferson said the decision was based on whether it was reasonable to hire someone, not the cost of the undertaking.
“I feel we can do this at the district level,” he said, adding that this is a key responsibility of the superintendent, who will ultimately be responsible for the new principal’s success.
The only benefit he said might be lost as a result of making this choice would be the wider networking capability that a consultant would add to the search, but he did not think that would affect the outcome.
“I don’t anticipate any problems,” he said.
In fact, word is already out in the educational community and he has already had calls about the job.
“There may be internal candidates, too,” he said.
In other business, Jefferson said the building committee was still moving toward final closure on the Bromfield building project, but the bidding process for roof work had hit a snag. It seems the funds voters approved at town meeting to fix certain sections of the roof and its envelope might not be enough to do the whole job.
According to business manager Lorraine Leonard, the work in question may be more costly than anticipated. The designated work includes removing the old roof and it turns out there is not one, but two to remove. Also, there are other roofs on different sections of the building that need replacing and they should be rolled into the total project cost, she said.
Leonard said these other roofs could be added in as alternatives and presented for funding in various configurations that add or subtract from the overall project. Asked if she could take a guess on the size of the anticipated shortfall, Leonard said no.
“Once we know what the prices are, we — or town meeting — can decide” which jobs to do, she said.
Board member Willie Wickman, who serves on the building committee, noted that a previous problem with hot and cold rooms has not been resolved. Students, staff and teachers have reported scattered cold spots and say that some rooms are uncomfortably hot.
“These HVAC issues must be nailed down,” Wickman said, particularly in light of current fuel costs.
Jefferson said each room had been scoped for trouble spots. A couple of construction-related issues have been identified, he said, but other problems may be caused by stuff like leaving a window open.
“Significant progress has been made,” he said. “It is not a perfect science.”
